Accident Overview
On January 28, 2021, an emergency management department in a certain area discovered multiple safety hazards in a company. According to the "Criteria for Determining Major Production Safety Accident Hazards in Industry and Trade", the failure to install combustible gas monitoring and alarm devices in the pentane storage site as required is a major accident hazard. Law enforcement officers ordered the enterprise to stop using pentane storage tanks and related equipment, and immediately carry out hazard elimination.
On March 17, 2021, during another inspection by the local emergency management department, it was found that the enterprise was still using equipment related to pentane and had not yet installed monitoring and alarm devices for pentane storage sites. Major accident hazards still existed, and the enterprise had purchased 28 tons of pentane without authorization during the period when it was ordered to stop using pentane storage tanks. Upon verification, it was found that there were still about 26 tons of pentane stored in the tanks on that day. The law enforcement personnel of the emergency management department in the area immediately ordered the enterprise to temporarily suspend production and business, and conducted a case investigation on the enterprise in accordance with the law.
Processing results
The local emergency management department believes that a company's refusal to implement the on-site handling decision made in accordance with the law and its refusal to eliminate major accident hazards is suspected of constituting the crime of dangerous operations and should be held criminally responsible in accordance with Article 134-1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. According to Article 3 of the Regulations on the Transfer of Suspected Criminal Cases by Administrative Law Enforcement Agencies, the emergency management department then transferred the case to a certain district public security bureau. According to Article 134-1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the People's Court considers that the defendant Yu (actual controller of the enterprise) has committed the crime of dangerous operations and is sentenced to eight months' imprisonment with one year's probation.
Expert analysis
According to Article 134-1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, those who refuse to comply with the law and are ordered to stop using relevant equipment or facilities or immediately take corrective measures to eliminate the danger due to the existence of major accident hazards, and have a real danger of causing major casualties or other serious consequences, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than one year, criminal detention or public surveillance. According to Article 3 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving Endangering Production Safety (II), if a person is ordered to suspend production or business, stop construction, stop using relevant equipment, facilities, or places, or immediately take corrective measures to eliminate danger due to the existence of major accident hazards, and intentionally fails to execute the above administrative decisions and orders made by the people's governments at all levels or departments responsible for safety production supervision and management without justifiable reasons, it belongs to the "refusal to execute" stipulated in Article 134-1, Item 2 of the Criminal Law. In this case, a certain company refused to implement the on-site handling decision made by the emergency management department in accordance with the law, did not rectify major accident hazards, and continued to use pentane storage tanks and related equipment without installing monitoring and alarm devices and eliminating major accident hazards. It also purchased pentane again for production, which poses a real danger of major casualties. The main person in charge should be held criminally responsible for the crime of dangerous operations in accordance with Article 134-1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. The emergency management department shall, in accordance with Article 3 of the "Provisions on the Transfer of Suspected Criminal Cases by Administrative Law Enforcement Agencies" and the relevant provisions of the "Measures for the Connection between Administrative Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice in Work Safety", transfer the case to relevant departments for criminal responsibility.
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