Over 90 percent of accidents at work caused by human error

According to studies of fatal accidents in the workplace in China, over 90 percent are due to human error.

Sun Huashan, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety announced the results at the 2006 International Conference on Occupational Safety Training in Beijing. At the conference the focus was on improving work safety education and training.

The errors and accidents are due to a lack of work safety knowledge, said Sun. Laurence Svirchev from the Workers' Compensation Board of Canada pointed out that fatigue is also a major contributor to the accidents.

Sun said that training is an important factor in reducing accidents and revealed that China will establish an Internet training system by 2010.

Zhang Pingyuan, deputy director of the Personnel Training Department of the State Administration of Work Safety pointed out that improving work safety in China will be a long-term task.

"More laws and regulations are needed in this aspect of work safety, and future training should cover rural laborers," said Zhang. He also called for more investments in existing training programs and better supervision.

Last year China reported 717,938 workplace accidents, which resulted in the deaths of 127,089 people.