Railway authorities' reward to life-saving employee too stingy

A train arrives at a station in Sichuan province, December 12, 2014.[Photo/IC]

ON WEDNESDAY, when a train entered the high-speed railway station in Xianyou city, East China's Fujian province, a female passenger suddenly rushed toward the edge of the platform with the aim of jumping in front of the train. She was intercepted by Weng Jianzhong, a member of staff at the station, and an accident narrowly avoided. The railway decided to reward Weng with 6,000 yuan ($870). Thepaper.cn comments:

A video shows that Weng reacted quickly and dragged the woman back from the edge of the platform. Apparently he had been keeping an eye on the woman, as he had noticed she was in low mood in the waiting hall. So Weng deserves a bonus for his sense of responsibility as well as his life-saving action.

The amount he has been given is too low. It should be noted that Weng not only saved the life of the woman, but also saved the railway from heavy economic losses, because if the woman had jumped in front of the train it would have caused delays to other high-speed trains. Those losses would have been much higher than 6,000 yuan.

Of course, Weng never had a bonus in mind when he acted to save the woman, but the railway authorities should show their sense of responsibility by expressing their thanks to Weng to the biggest extent. Giving Weng a good reward is also a good deal for the railway authorities, because with it they can encourage more staff to act like Weng should risks emerge in the future.

Last October, He Chao, a pilot at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, acted bravely and rightly when a wrong instruction issued by air traffic control almost caused two planes to collide on the runway. He received a reward of 3 million yuan.

We do not mean that Weng should get a reward comparable to He's, but at least there should not be so huge a gap.