Last week witnessed the collapses of three bridges in China, all of which had been in service for no more than 14 years. These accidents prompt us to ask why relatively new bridges are so fragile?

Official probes initially blamed the collapses on overloaded trucks. Under mounting public outcry, officials admitted that the bridges succumbed to inherent design flaws and lack of safety oversight.

Omens were plenty before these accidents. In the case of the Qianjiang No.3 Bridge that caved in on July 15 in Hangzhou, some Netizens had predicted its demise four years ago, while the Wuyishan Bridge in Fujian Province, which broke in half and killed one person on July 14, were long found to be overloaded with traffic. Yet its operator and the local road management team both shirked their responsibility to plug the safety loopholes.

This has almost been a norm. Where there is money involved, all the stakeholders vie for bridges' control. When accidents occur, they stumble and plead innocence. Even though they fully knew the possibility of a collapse was real, they neglected daily maintenance and failed to strictly conduct safety checks of the bridges.

This kind of lax supervision and routine post-disaster stonewalling suggests that there will only be more such "accidents" in the future.

Related

• Bridge collapse kills 1, injures 22
• 44 died, 22 still missing after bridge collapse
• Death toll from China bridge collapse climbs to 51

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)