Precarious river crossing claims sixth victim

As there is no bridge for pedestrians to cross this point of the Xunsi River in south-west Wuhan, local residents have to chance using a pipeline to reach the other side. On October 17, it claimed its sixth victim in a decade.

The supporting structure of the pipe spans the river at ten metres above water. Situated in the centre of a south-west district of the city of Wuhan, the perilous overpass is used by around 300 people every day.

“No state service will accept responsibility”

Weng Haofeng is a photographer and blogger from Wuhan. He took the photos.

The high-speed Beijing-Guangzhou train crosses the bridge above every five minutes. Just next to it is this very narrow gangplank which carries electric cables. It's this narrow overpass that the locals use as a kind of bridge. People have not only injured themselves, but drowned after falling into the polluted water below [according to the local press, there have been six deaths since 1999]. Just last Saturday, yet another tragedy took place on the ‘bridge'. Four children were crossing, when one of them, Cheng Jin, slipped and fell into the river. A week later, his body has still not been found. And no state service will accept responsibility. His parents are devastated; often you see his father sat on the bank staring into the water.

But the incident hasn't changed anything. Nothing's been done to improve the situation. People keep crossing the river.

The locals say pedestrians were banned from crossing the railway bridge many years ago. To avoid a two-kilometre detour, some of them started using the rail. The authorities put up barriers, but they were soon taken down by the locals. And then everyone started using it.

If the authorities do nothing then there will only be more victims. In our society, we're supposed to value life more than that."

Cheng Jin slipped and drowned in the river on October 17. His father holds a photo of him in his hands.

Comments

XUNSI BRDGE - TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY OR FIX IT!

Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 02/11/2009 - 01:59.

Good People of China: This is inexcusable. What is a life worth to you? Why should these people have to cross this treacherous bridge in this manner OR face a very long 2k walk around? I am sure that this is a matter of money - so think of a cheap solution. I see nothing in the article above that indicates the bridge is unsafe to carry the weight of pedestrians and I can't see people other than a few kids, taking this risk if it were not a real necessity at times. Just by looking at the photos - I can see there are numerous methods to make a cheap wooden suspension bridge OR At THE VERY MINIMUM put up a fixed rope so that people crossing can have something to hold on to. The united States has a lot of flaws and unecessary regulations but to allow 300+ "trespassers" a day to cross a known dangerous series of pipes is exactly equal to taking TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY for any deaths that occur. THIS IS BECASUE YOU KNOW there is 1. a dangerous condition and 2. You allow it to continue to be used by trespassers SO YOU, CHINA have a duty to protect those people, shut it off completely or make it SAFE. SO CHINA - do you devalue your people so much that you can't afford to build a simple wooden pathway that would dangle from the exisiting bridge? As we know your building regulations are loose if existent at all - I think constrution of a simple wooden path that is attached to the existing structure would not be very expensive or complicated. E-mail me I will send you some plans.
My heart goes out to those lost by this tragedy - and if your government will not act - PUT UP YOUR OWN ROPE HANDHOLD - You can do it. IF you nervy enugh to walk on those pipes I think you would be nervy enough to install a rope along the path to hold on to.
A friend in The United States

Unregistered user