Chinese Officials Bury Evidence To Deflect Public Criticism Over Handling Of Train Crash

Criticism within China over a high-speed train accident that killed 35 has shifted from attacks against a lack of safety measures to accusations of a government cover-up. Early on July 24, less than a day after the accident on the Hexie (harmony) train line, seven loading shovels were seen digging a hole to bury the front car of the bullet train that had rear-ended a train that had stopped due to a power outage caused by lightning.

While the "Hexie" name and "CRH" letters (indicating the train was part of the high-speed railway system) were visible at first, the loading shovels crushed the car to eradicate the markings. "Is this an attempt to not inform us about the real cause of the accident?" said a 37-year-old woman who was injured in the accident and whose friend's daughter died.

During the three hours when the front car was being buried, there were no signs that any expert entered the car to investigate the cause of the accident on the line that Chinese officials claim is the world's fastest. "In order to determine the cause of the accident, the train driver's seat should normally be thoroughly investigated," said a photographer for a local newspaper who covered the scene. But a railway official claimed the investigation "was completed by that time [less than 24 hours after the accident]."

An editorial in the Jinghua Shibao (Beijing Times) criticized the central government for ignoring safety in its bid to promote a high-speed rail service. "The train is not running in a laboratory," the editorial said. "It is a public service in which the lives of the people are at stake."

The unusual criticism of the government followed similar but much more heated comments that appeared on the Internet after the Railways Ministry said only that the cause of the accident was lightning. "I cannot ride on a train that will malfunction every time there's a lightning storm," one poster said.

Another post said, "This is a human disaster caused by corrupt bureaucrats." Others posts said the underlying cause was China's rush to become No. 1 in the world, even at the expense of safety. "It was all done to overtake the gross domestic product of advanced economies and people's lives were used," said one.

Concerning the burying of a train car so quickly after the accident, a Japanese official who investigates train accidents said, "Investigative agencies in China are not very independent, and I have heard that in many cases they are influenced by what the government wants done."