China bridge collapse kills 29, rekindles safety concerns

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - By Alexa Olesen, BEIJING, AP

The collapse of a bridge under construction that left at least 29 people dead in a Chinese tourist town rekindled concerns Tuesday about rushed, shoddy building amid China's torrid economic expansion.
Witnesses described hearing a rumble and seeing stones fall from the structure Monday afternoon after construction workers removed the supportive frame from the 42-meter high, 268-meter-long (140-foot-high, 880-foot-long) vehicle and pedestrian bridge across the Tuo River in the southern town of Fenghuang.

"The whole thing collapsed," said Nong Xiaozhong, one of two survivors in a 12-man construction team working under the bridge.

"There was no time to warn the other workers and I just managed to run a few steps before I was covered under the stones," Nong said in a telephone interview from the Fenghuang Chinese Medicine Hospital where he was being treated for pain in his abdomen. "I crawled to the road nearby and an ambulance came in 10 minutes. I was rescued."

Rescuers managed to save 86 people, including 22 who were injured, many from the 123 workers on the site at the time of the collapse, the government's Xinhua News Agency reported. The death toll rose steadily as rescuers with specially trained dogs and bulldozers sifted through mounds of toppled concrete.