14 jailed over deadly Beijing construction site accident

Fourteen construction chiefs were today sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to six years for negligence leading to the death of ten people in a building collapse here last year.
The accident happened on December 29, 2014 when a gymnasium they were building at Tsinghua University High School, the affiliated middle school of China's prestigious Tsinghua University, collapsed killing ten workers and injuring four others.
Announcing its verdict, the court in Beijing's Haidian District said the construction chiefs instructed workers not to lay steel bars needed to reinforce the concrete structure.
The bars' omission led to the building's collapse, state- run Xinhua news agency reported.

The 14 chiefs, including officials from the construction firm and the company in charge of supervising the project, also failed to follow the safety protocols, the court said.
It gave another construction manager a suspended three-year prison sentence.