Mine rescue laudable but lessons to be learned

One of the four surviving miners is lifted out after being trapped in a collapsed mine 36 days in Pingyi, East China's Shandong province, on Jan 29, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Four miners were rescued on Friday after being trapped more than 200 meters underground for 36 days, after a tunnel collapsed in a gypsum mine in Pingyi county, East China's Shandong province. The collapse trapped 29 miners working underground on Dec 25. Eleven escaped or were rescued, one is confirmed dead and 13 others are still missing. The rescue is worth praising, but what caused the disaster needs investigating, says Beijing News.

The four rescued miners deserve respect for their arduous struggle to stay alive. So too do the rescuers, who must continue their efforts as 13 people remain missing.

Although long and costly, the Pingyi rescue should be remembered for its never-give-up spirit, it is also important to heed the lessons of the disaster to prevent similar accidents from happening again. This is the best way to show respect to those that lost their lives. That is why the State Administration of Work Safety has urged relevant departments to find out what caused the tragedy, and has pledged to hold accountable all responsible.

Such a response may sound harsh, because there is no guarantee that all precautionary measures can be taken as not all risks can be foreseen. However, the lessons from such accidents must be learned.

In the Pingyi tragedy, for example, whether the minor underground shocks noticed by some local residents before the collapse, were dismissed by the local authorities remains to be determined. Should that prove to be true, more efforts are needed to supervise the inspections of mines, in order to ensure that all necessary safety precautions are implemented to the letter.

The chairman of the board of directors of the mine has already committed suicide by jumping to his death in a mine pit. And four leaders of the local county government have also been dismissed from their official posts.

Still much more needs to be done to find out exactly what measures the company failed to take to prevent the accident from happening. It should also need to be made clear what the local county government could have done but it failed to do to stop the company from sending miners down to work in such a dangerous mine shaft. It is never too late to mend the fences after the sheep are lost.