Chapter V

Accident Rescue, Investigation and Handling

Article 79  The state shall strengthen the emergency response capacity regarding accidents related to work safety, set up emergency rescue bases and teams in major industries and sectors under the unified coordination and command of national work safety emergency rescue organization; encourage production and operation entities and other social actors to set up emergency rescue teams and be equipped with emergency rescue equipment and supplies and improve the level of the professionalism of emergency rescue.

The emergency management department under the State Council shall set up a national emergency rescue information system for accidents related to work safety. Relevant departments under the State Council such as departments of transportation, housing and urban-rural development, water resources, and civil aviation shall set up information systems within their jurisdiction. People's governments at the county level or above shall also establish and improve local emergency rescue information systems for accidents related to work safety designated for the relevant industries, sectors and regions, so as to achieve connectivity and information sharing. They shall improve the level of precision and intelligence of supervision through promoting internet-based work safety information collection, safety supervision, monitoring and early warning.

Article 80  Local people's governments at or above the county level shall organize relevant departments to formulate emergency plans for accidents related to work safety that may occur in their administrative regions and set up emergency rescue systems accordingly.

The people's governments of towns and townships, sub-district offices, management institutions of, inter alia, development zones, industrial parks, ports, and scenery resorts shall formulate their respective emergency plans for accidents related to work safety, and assist local government departments, or as authorized, to fulfill their duty for work accident rescue in accordance with the law.

Article 81  Production and operation entities shall formulate their own emergency plans for accidents related to work safety that are consistent with the emergency plans for accidents related to work safety formulated under the arrangement of local people's governments at or above the county level where they are located, and shall organize drills on a regular basis.

Article 82  Entities that manufacture, operate or store dangerous articles, mines and metal smelting entities, urban rail transit operations as well as construction entities shall set up their respective emergency rescue organizations. Entities engaged in small-scale production or business operation may be exempted from setting up such organizations but shall designate part-time emergency rescue personnel.

Entities that manufacture, operate or store dangerous articles, mines and metal smelting, urban rail transit operation as well as construction entities shall have at hand the necessary devices, equipment, and supplies for emergency rescue and have them maintained and serviced constantly to ensure their normal operation.

Article 83  When an accident related to work safety occurs in a production and operation entity, relevant persons at the accident scene shall immediately report it to the persons directly in charge of this entity.

On receiving such an accident report, the person directly in charge of the entity shall take prompt and effective measures to organize a rescue, prevent the accident from expanding and minimize the casualties and property loss, and they shall, in accordance with relevant state regulations, immediately and truthfully report the accident to the local department in charge of work safety supervision and administration. The person directly in charge of the entity must not conceal the accident, make a false report or delay the report, or deliberately damage the accident scene or destroy relevant evidence.

Article 84  On receiving the report on an accident, the department in charge of work safety supervision and administration shall, in accordance with relevant state regulations, report the accident immediately to the higher authority. No department in charge of work safety supervision and administration and relevant local people's government may conceal the facts of the accident, make a false report, or delay the report.

Article 85  On receiving the report of an accident related to work safety, the persons in charge of the local people's government concerned and of the department in charge of work safety supervision and administration shall, according to the requirements of the emergency plans for accidents related to work safety, immediately rush to the accident scene to organize a rescue.

The departments and entities participating in the accident rescue shall obey the unified directions, strengthen coordination and interaction, take effective emergency rescue measures and adopt, in light of the needs of the accident rescue, the measures such as alerting or evacuation to prevent the expansion of the accident and the occurrence of secondary disasters and to reduce the human casualties and property loss.

Necessary measures shall be adopted during the rescue to avoid or reduce the harm caused to the environment.

All entities and individuals shall provide assistance, cooperation and all possible conveniences for the accident rescue.

Article 86  In the investigation and handling of an accident, the principles of being scientific and rigorous, abiding by laws and regulations, seeking truth from facts and paying attention to practical results shall be applied in order to find out the accurate causes of the accident in a timely manner, make clear the nature of and responsibility for the accident, evaluate emergency response performance, draw lessons from the accident, formulate rectification measures and put forward suggestions for dealing with the entities and persons responsible for the accident. The accident investigation report shall be disclosed in accordance with the law in a timely manner. Specific measures for investigation and handling of accidents shall be formulated by the State Council.

The entity where the accident occurs shall implement rectification measures in a timely and comprehensive manner and the department in charge of work safety supervision and administration shall strengthen supervision and inspection.

Within one year after approving the accident investigation report, relevant departments under the State Council in charge of accident investigation and handling and the local people's government shall organize relevant departments to assess the implementation of accident rectification and prevention measures, and disclose the results of such assessment to society in a timely manner. Entities and personnel that have failed to ensure the implementation of the rectification and prevention measures shall be held accountable according to relevant regulations.

Article 87  Where a production or business entity is confirmed to be accountable for an accident related to work safety, the liability of the entity where the accident occurs shall be investigated in accordance with the law, and the liability to be undertaken by the administrative departments in charge of examination and approval of and supervision over matters related to work safety shall also be ascertained according to the provisions in Article 90 of this Law if negligence or dereliction of duty is found.

Article 88  No entity or individual may obstruct or interfere with the lawful investigation into and handling of the accidents.

Article 89  Emergency management departments under the local people's governments at or above the county level shall regularly prepare statistics and make an analysis of accidents related to work safety that have occurred within their administrative areas and disclose to the society regularly.