Interview with Director of Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Transport Chen Aiping

From June to the end of the month, the transportation system carried out a large-scale safety inspection across the country. As a supervisory department for maritime traffic safety, the maritime department has done a lot of work in maintaining the safety of water transportation. How effective is the big inspection? What steps should be taken to strengthen water traffic safety management? A few days ago, the reporter interviewed Chen Aiping, director of the Maritime Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Transport.

Reporter: Please tell us about the current overall situation of water transportation safety production.

Chen Aiping: From January to July this year, the country’s total port cargo throughput totaled 6.1 billion tons. There were 158 water traffic accidents, 148 deaths, 87 shipwrecks, and direct economic losses of 250 million yuan, which was a year-on-year increase of 2.3%. , down 12.9%, down 10.3%, up 5.2%. The four indicators fell by two liter and two, and the number of deaths and deaths dropped by a large percentage over the same period of last year There were 2 accidents with 10 or more deaths and deaths, which was a 50% year-on-year drop. Although the water transportation continues to maintain a steady state, but from the causes of accidents, regional distribution and hidden dangers of safety, the water traffic safety work has a long way to go, there can be no slack, there can be no sloppy, must be a vigilante, often unremitting.

Reporter: What are the outstanding issues facing China's water traffic safety work?

Ai-Ping Chen: Through the summary analysis of daily maritime supervision work and in-depth investigation and analysis of water traffic accidents, we found that there are still many problems in the current water traffic safety. Some problems are due to the downturn in the shipping industry, shipping companies are in a difficult position, the security cost is reduced, and the investment in safety production is neglected. The responsibility of some safe production entities has not been implemented or implemented. Some problems have always existed. The technical conditions of the township ferry vessels are poor, the firefighting lifesaving equipment is insufficient, and ferry crossings are poorly constructed. Although many improvements have been made, they have not achieved fundamental improvement. There are many reasons for this. For such problems, we need to work hard and mobilize all forces to work together to cure them. Some companies and operators are driven by interests, taking human life as a play, deliberately breaking the law, such as many river sand and gravel boats, construction ships on the sea construction operations, the ship is overloaded, manning shortages, escape, and resistance to maritime supervision. These problems can easily lead to water traffic accidents and cause heavy casualties and property losses. We have also been working hard to resolve these outstanding conflicts.

Reporter: Some time ago, there have been several serious safety accidents in some places. The masses are very concerned about this. How do you think that in an effective way, we can better promote the implementation of various measures for the safe production of marine traffic?

Ai-Ping Chen: The shipping industry is characterized by high risks. In the event of an accident, it will cause major casualties and cause great grief to the crew members' relatives. It will also cause social fluctuations in a certain range. The economic losses, environmental pollution, and social impacts caused by water traffic accidents are also difficult to measure. To strengthen water traffic safety work and better promote the implementation of various measures, we must always tighten the stringent production of water transportation, stick to safety first, and focus on prevention and comprehensive management. Only people attach great importance to the safe production of marine traffic, adhere to internal and external forces to promote synergy, combined with annual safety inspections and other long-term activities, consolidate coverage, eliminate "blank spots", can truly implement the measures of safe production of water transport, consciously investigation All kinds of hidden dangers, so as to achieve safe production.

Reporter: This time, the safety inspection of transportation and production was carried out. How did the maritime sector develop?

Ai-Ping Chen: According to the Circular of the General Office of the State Council on Centralized Implementation of the National Inspection of Production Safety and the Deployment of the Telecommunication and Safety Production Television Conference, we have timely deployed the Maritime System for the centralized inspection of the safety of water transportation production. According to the actual situation of water traffic safety production work, we have clarified the scope of the major inspections of safe production of maritime systems, including all units, enterprises, ships, and facilities involved in water transportation safety, focusing on the inspection of ferry crossings, floating passenger (roll) transport, and waterborne sands. Stone transport, navigation bridge area and river crossing buildings, hazardous chemicals transportation, and dissemination management companies. The key point is to strengthen the investigation and management of hidden dangers, and to prevent them from sticking to their guard; strengthen publicity and carry out emergency drills to prevent problems; grasp key ships, keep an eye on regulatory difficulties, and achieve targeted results. This is the content and goal of our major inspection.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of the work, and supervise and inspect the inspection of maritime safety agencies at various levels and the safety inspections of shipping companies and ships, we have formulated the “Water Safety Supervision Plan for Production” and organized inspections and unannounced visits from the end of July to the beginning of August. . The inspections were divided into four groups and the areas of the Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta, the Taiwan Strait, the Qiongzhou Strait, and the Yangtze River were inspected. This is also the key area for water transportation safety, such as the "Four Zones, First Lines," as determined by the Ministry of Transport since 2000; The unannounced visits were also divided into four groups. Participating professionals were involved in the unannounced visits and inspections of the safety management status of ferry ferries, cruise ships, passenger ships, and gravel ships in some provinces and on-site enforcement of the maritime agencies. From the perspective of inspectors, maritime agencies can earnestly fulfill their duties of supervising maritime traffic safety and, in accordance with the actual conditions of their jurisdiction, strengthen the implementation of rectification of hidden dangers, increase the intensity of publicity and education, and enhance the awareness of water safety in the entire society.

Reporter: Next, what measures does the maritime department plan to take to promote water traffic safety management?

Chen Aiping: We will combine the Party's mass line education practice activities that are currently under way and Yang's request for the "regularization, revolutionization, and modernization" proposed by the maritime authorities, and promote the safety of water production with the concept of refined management. Starting from the inner source, it has a solid foundation and is supplemented by necessary supervision measures and inspection guidance. In the next step, we will do five key tasks.

The first is to increase safety production propaganda. We plan to shoot educational productions for production safety warnings, broadcast them in government affairs halls and other places across the country, use engaging propaganda methods and content, and allow crews and other practitioners to truly think about safety, eliminate chances and paralysis. On the other hand, we are negotiating with the Ministry of Education to jointly carry out the transportation safety knowledge into the campus activities. Water safety education must start from the children.

The second is to increase the intensity of information construction. In order to improve the efficiency and quality of vessel visas and effectively solve the regulatory problems of false seafarers, multiple cards, and insufficient staffing, we will integrate ship dynamic systems and crew management systems to achieve the coordinated application of ship crew management systems and achieve ship and ship inspections. Information sharing and data interoperability form a regulatory alliance to effectively stop illegal activities such as multiple codes for one ship, one yard for multiple ships, alteration of ship data, and decking, effectively combating low standards and violations of navigation vessels.

Thirdly, in view of the fact that the ferrying technology in some areas is backward, we organize training programs for crews from all over the country to provide free knowledge update training to the ferry workers and improve their operational skills and levels. For newly-replaced ferries, ferry operators or shipowners are required to urge them to sign social commitments and supervise the implementation of the commitments. We have also raised funds to purchase about 60,000 life jackets through tenders and tenders. Free gifts are provided for some life jackets with difficult Ferryboats or Banyi Ferries.

Fourthly, the situation that many solid-bulk cargo ships carrying solid and fluidized cargoes submerged in China’s coastal areas was underway. From July 1 to September 30, we launched a nationwide “safety management season for solid and bulk cargo transported by ships”. Activities and clear September 1st to September 30th is the “Month of Safety Supervision on Shipborne Easy Flow Fluidized Solid Bulk Cargo Management”, and the implementation of relevant supporting systems and requirements for the safety management of solid bulk cargo carried by ships , strengthen safety supervision.

The fifth is to ensure the safety of bridges. The collapse of the bridge not only involves the country’s major property losses, but also leads to the loss of vehicles and human lives, resulting in serious consequences. At present, the contradiction between the ship's large-scale and the unbalance of the ability to pass through the Yangtze River trunk line and the collision avoidance capability is very prominent. We will take targeted measures for the safety of the bridge area, such as nighttime, bad weather, ban on navigation and so on. At the same time, we will actively communicate with local governments and relevant departments of the Ministry of Transport to better solve existing problems.

We will also further improve our management and service initiatives and continue to strengthen the work of preventing typhoon work and the safety supervision of sand and gravel carriers. At the same time, we also hope that all walks of life in the society will pay attention to the water traffic safety work, provide us with good opinions and suggestions, supervise our maritime supervision work, and work with us to manage the safety of water traffic and maintain the stability of the water traffic safety situation. .