Two Chinese officials have been jailed for letting a blind contractor build a bridge that collapsed during construction, injuring 12 workers, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said late Monday that a court in the southern province of Jianxi sentenced Huang Wenge, a village chief in Xiushui county, to 18 months in jail, and local party leader Xia Jiazhong to 12 months.

The agency said that last November the two hired for a bridge-building project a contractor, who then transferred the construction to another contractor, Xia Huaqing, who is blind.

Xinhua said that when Xia Huaqing suggested changing the bridge’s design, the two approved the alterations without telling higher-level officials.

The new design was being used when the bridge collapsed in March, injuring the 12 workers, Xinhua said.

Source

I’m sorry, I started laughing (I’m really not mean) when I read the title.

I mean, it sort of says it all

I suppose that being blind wouldn’t necessarily be a complete handicap for a contractor, depending on what he was supposed to do.  If he was actually designing things, or going out and putting things together, then there would certainly be room for problems.  But if he was just an administrator, or even just a figurehead, then his being blind could work out fine.  I wonder just what exactly the blind guy did?

After all, whatever suggestions the blind guy made (and the article doesn’t say if they were actually his suggestions, or if he was just relaying what his other workers said), the other contractor agreed with them.  So the guy who wasn’t blind didn’t see any problems with the plans.

Hey, Beethoven was deaf, so go figure!

(Yes, I know, he was not born deaf, and he actually welcomed it, evidently it came on slowly, and he refused to try to do anything about it.)

Acci is right, actually a blind engineer could very well oversee just about any building project just fine, with proper assistants.

And what is so strange about a blind contractor anyway?

After all, here in the US, our President is quite blind, to reality at least.

Dan, taking yet another poke at Dear President Bush

Accipiter - 13 June 2007 10:51 PM

So the guy who wasn’t blind didn’t see any problems with the plans.

Neither did the guy who was blind!

Tah - 14 June 2007 01:22 AM

Accipiter - 13 June 2007 10:51 PM

So the guy who wasn’t blind didn’t see any problems with the plans.

Neither did the guy who was blind!

Must have been a labor of love, for we all know that love is blind.

Dan, apologizing in advance

There are a lot of not-being-able-to-see-ists in this thread!