Public security organs must take action in the face of major hidden dangers

    Yao Jie, a lawyer from Guangdong Shengtian Law Firm, believes that most people will report to the public security organ at the first opportunity when similar emergencies occur, so the public security organ is obliged to transfer issues not within its jurisdiction to other departments or report to higher-level government departments after receiving the alarm. According to reports, in this Longhua sinkhole incident, the police had received residents' alarms beforehand, but after inspecting the scene, they did not pay enough attention to the hidden danger, which is clearly a dereliction of duty.

    Yao Jie also believes that although the routine maintenance and management of roads, the management and maintenance of underground pipelines and facilities, and the prediction and investigation of hidden dangers are not within the scope of the public security organ's duties, in the face of emergencies or major hidden dangers, the public security organ must take action, as it has the responsibility to protect citizens' personal and property safety.

    Suggestion to establish a special agency to handle such hidden dangers

    Lawyer Liu Yuhong questioned: since the Longhua New District Management Committee has "always attached importance" and adopted high-tech detection technologies such as "geological radar and endoscopy," why can sinkhole incidents still not be avoided? Since "void detection" is carried out in areas where "the pipeline network has been built for a long time," why were no hidden dangers detected in such an old community where the incident occurred? Since the management committee has regulatory responsibilities, why did residents still not know which department to contact when signs of sinkholes appeared for over a month?

    Liu Yuhong said that according to the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Longhua New District and Dapeng New District of Shenzhen," the new district management committee has management responsibilities for urban construction, urban management, water affairs management, etc. The problems of the new district management committee in this ground collapse incident include: possibly omitting detection of many old dangerous areas; inadequate management of data archives, and due to the lack of information, it may not even know which areas have old pipeline networks, and may not have sorted them out in time since the establishment of the new district; lack of information sharing and linkage between the government and the public, and among government departments. Liu Yuhong suggested that the government establish a special emergency handling agency dedicated to pre-incident alarm reception and post-incident relief for such public issues with complex responsible subjects, so that at least residents have a place to report hidden dangers.

    Administrative responsibility should be clearly determined

    The lawyer also pointed out that experts have initially determined that the accident was caused by damage to the underground water pipeline network. According to the relevant provisions of administrative laws and regulations on the principle of administrative fault liability, the Longhua New District Urban Construction Bureau should bear corresponding administrative responsibility for failing to fulfill its management duties, and if relevant staff members have dereliction of duty or faults in the administrative management process, their administrative responsibility should also be pursued. According to the "Tort Liability Law" and the "Product Quality Law," if the underground water pipeline network involved in this accident has design defects, construction quality problems, or product quality problems, the original design unit, pipeline production unit, pipeline network construction unit, construction unit, project supervision unit, and post-construction maintenance unit or property rights unit of the underground water pipeline network shall all bear corresponding civil compensation liability.