China's first half coal mine accident deaths drop 30.6%

Deaths resulting from coal mine accidents in China dropped 30.6 percent in the first half of 2015, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) on Tuesday.

Li Wanchun, head of the statistics department under SAWS, said China has not had any coal mine accidents with more than 30 deaths for 28 consecutive months, and coal mine accidents that killed 10 to 30 people declined 83.3 percent from a year ago.

Last year's deaths caused by coal mine accidents represented a sharp decline from about 7,000 in 2002, the biggest year on record for coal mine accidents, the administration's director said at a press conference in March.

Total workplace accidents and resulting deaths shrank 10.9 percent and 5.3 percent respectively in the Jan.-June period, while accidents with 3 to 10 dead decreased 9.3 percent, according to the data from SAWS.

The number of workplace accidents and deaths declined in 19 provincial-level regions, 18 of which had no accidents with more than 30 dead in the first half, the SAWS data showed.

Li said the lower rates of accidents and casualties indicated that China's work safety situation has improved.