A Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday.

Huang Wenge, township head of Bujia in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, and colleague Xia Jianzhong were sentenced to 18 months and one year in jail, respectively, for not stopping the project, Xinhua said.

"Huang Wenge and Xia Jianzhong, who were in charge of road management and supervision, did not ask the contractors to provide certificates guaranteeing their proficiency," it said, citing the court ruling.

"When they knew the bridge was being built by a blind contractor, they did not stop it," it said, adding the contractor had changed the blueprint without getting a professional to look at the design.

"After the blind contractor changed the blueprint, he carried out the work only using a roughly drawn draft of the plan, which caused the bridge to collapse," the report said.

Xinhua did not explain how the contractor was able to run the project considering his inability to see

What was the old saying - one bland man, er contractor, leads the other into a ditch ? :D

But seriously, I wonder if his blindness is just an excuse or cover up for something else. Did they not know he was blind when they handed the contract. And what's to say his blindness played a direct role - were they not aware that because he was blind, he would most likely have "delegated" such functions to others. If he was fired for overall failure of oversight and management, then that's more justifiable. But to put it simply as the failure of a "blind contractor" to me smacks of questionable motives on the part of the authorities.

BTW, BC , you are opening new threads faster than I can comment - LOL! :P Kidding.

Hey, what about reviving the Tit Bits thread - Tit Bits 2 or something? :)

Off to lunch, catch ya later.

What is the source bathroomcoffee? (any websource?)
I think blind contractor( who can not see) will not be the problem for construction. A contractor can not be blind as it is a managemnet group to construct any structures. There must be some meaning of 'blind'. It is not a construction of bridge with playcards. There must be designers, contractor and owners during construction. So can you define it clearly?