Mom appeals findings on son's subway death

Mom appeals findings on son's subway death

• Source: Global Times
• [08:39 March 16 2011]
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By Yan Shuang

The Municipal Legal Affairs Office has accepted a mother's appeal to investigate an official research report on her son's death.

University student Ma Yue, 22, died at the Line 2 Gulou subway station on August 23, 2010.

Ma's mother, Meng Zhaohong, claims that electricity may have leaked onto the platform, stunning Ma and causing him to fall on the tracks, where he was electrocuted. The subway company never provided surveillance footage of the scene, claiming station cameras were broken.

Chen Zhiwen, deputy director of Beijing Subway's legal department, told the Chengdu Evening News earlier that Ma may have been dizzy and fallen because he had played computer games for eight hours before going to the station.

Meng said she submitted an appeal with the Xicheng district Work Safety Administration to investigate Ma's death on September 16 last year.

The administration replied four months later to say there was no electricity leakage on the platform, and that there was no evidence showing someone had deliberately erased the surveillance video record. No details of their research were provided.

"They refused to tell me who the investigation team members were and said it's a matter of privacy," Meng told the Global Times Tuesday.

She appealed to the Legal Affairs Office of the municipal government on February 25, asking for another investigation and to overturn the work safety administration's original report.

The office responded on Monday that her appeal has been filed and that it may take at least two months to give her a reply, according to Meng.