A Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday.
Huang Wenge, township head of Bujia in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, and colleague Xia Jianzhong were sentenced to 18 months and one year in jail, respectively, for not stopping the project, Xinhua said.
“Huang Wenge and Xia Jianzhong, who were in charge of road management and supervision, did not ask the contractors to provide certificates guaranteeing their proficiency,” it said, citing the court ruling.
“[pull]When they knew the bridge was being built by a blind contractor, they did not stop it[/pull],” it said, adding the contractor had changed the blueprint without getting a professional to look at the design.
“After the blind contractor changed the blueprint, he carried out the work only using a roughly drawn draft of the plan, which caused the bridge to collapse,” the report said.
Xinhua did not explain how the contractor was able to run the project considering his inability to see.
OK… I’m all for the blind working, and continuing their jobs, if they’ve lost their site. Provided they could do it safely. I worked at a bike shop in which the owner was blind. But I swear he could just tell when a bike was acting up, and how to fix it. But I think that jobs that require you to be able to view things…. then they should have a experienced professional do that. Just having someone describe something in construction… just doesn’t work. And in this case…was disastrous. But you’ve got to wonder about the officials that let it happen to begin with.
Tags: Interesting, Labor, News, Oddities, Weird
China exhibits the socialist/communist ideal, a society where everyone is equal, and there is no discrimination (unless you’re a Catholic who does not subscribe to the state-run “Catholic church.”)Since the state controls everything with an iron hand, no one would speak up and question this blind contractor’s ability or judgment, since he was authorized by the almighty state. Truly, the “blind” leading the blind, with society turning a blind eye on the spectacle.
Notice how Big Media neglected to report what happened to the poor blind contractor. It was doubtless too horrible to mention.