中国，请你走慢些——童大焕

7月23日20时27分，北京至福州的D301次列车行驶至温州市双屿路段时，与杭州开往福州的D3115次列车追尾，造成D301次列车4节车厢从高架桥上掉落。据悉事故原因是前车遭到雷击后失去动力停车，造成追尾。截至7月24日11时，媒体报道已有35人死亡、210人受伤。24日日本主要报纸的头条全是这则新闻，正可谓举国同悲，世界关注。

发生如此重大悲剧的前几天，铁道部发言人刚刚针对京沪高铁5天发生6起故障作出解释，说高铁需要2至3个月磨合期，然后进入稳定期。想必D301次和D3115次动车，开通不止三个月了吧？也许，我们不得不面对的现实是：我们正在为追求过快的发展速度付出代价。

事故发生后，人们翻出了我们曾经感到无比自豪的一些东西，比如《 人民日报 》2010年12月14日01 版发表的《“提速先锋”李东晓》，4009字长文，报道中写道：多一天调试，就能多给旅客一份安全与舒适。上级下了“死命令”：培训时间10天。10天后，必须把第一列时速350公里的动车组开回北京！“回北京可以。就安全角度而言，只能让别的机车把这车给拉回去。” 迈克斯是个倔老头儿，秉承了德国人一贯严谨的态度与工作作风。“那我们就打赌吧！10天后我们肯定能开走！”李东晓比迈克斯更倔。

此外还有硬建建设方面的，从最初的五年工期到实际两年7个月完成铺轨，京沪高铁“创造”了高铁建设速度记录——这个时间，在国外建设高铁时，还不足留给路基自然沉降。按照时速380公里的设计要求，京沪高铁线路建成百年内，沉降要控制在5毫米以内，时间跨度是100年内。如果超出这个限度，轻者会舒适度降低，重者可能会出现列车脱轨等安全事故。

我们大干快上，高铁却并不那么受欢迎。因为贵，即使在一票难求的春运，大量高铁仍然空荡荡运行。京沪高铁开通不到一月，已经宣布停运G181次、D238次、D242次、D241次等4趟车。因为上座率低，这4趟高铁列车3天的预订量最低仅一成。因为高铁故障频发，与此竞争的京沪航线4折机票已经基本上调回8折。高铁列车空荡荡绝尘而去的身影，像一个时代隐喻：中国高速发展的列车，把许多民众远远地抛在了身后。

被时代列车抛下的人们，远远不是被抛下那么简单，他们要承担高速发展的列车给他们留下的一系列成本：环境、安全以及高速发展所需的资金等等。最新消息是，铁道部2010年需还本付息超1500亿元，但税后利润仅1500万元，只占应付款的万分之一。在此前的2011年两会上，部长盛光祖表示铁道部负债额约为1.8万亿元。有分析认为，目前铁道部全部经营现金流也就只够支付利息。

而在安全问题上，人民日报社陕西分社社长杜峻晓在《铁路工程师为何不愿坐高铁》的文章中披露，有位铁路工程师去年退休离开工作岗位时，说过这样一句话：我这辈子出门坚决不坐高铁。工程师出于对“中国高铁发展很快”的担心，因为，这已经“不是一般的快，是那种大干快上’的快”。

今天，高铁的安全问题和投资浪费问题正在逐步显现之中。下一个要警惕的，是投资总额数万亿元的保障房。大干快上之下，其质量和债务隐患又将如何？《中国青年报》和《人民日报》几乎同时剑指保障房建设水分。一些地方政府将之前在建的教师宿舍、企业员工宿舍等，一并计入保障性安居工程，企事业单位用自有土地集资建房，低价卖给职工，拆迁户获得的补偿住房列入保障房名目等变相丛生。少数地方在申报数据时，将去年未开工的项目结转到今年开工项目中。为了加快进度，在审批手续不全的情况下就开工建设，边施工边审批的情况则更为普遍。还有一些地方，将奠基仪式作为开工的标志，“铲点土就算开工”。

“开工量”陡增不要紧，数字造假纸上文章不产生实际危害，要紧的是工程质量问题会不会陡增？毕竟资金不足仍是最大障碍，钱少、时间紧迫都有可能成为垃圾建筑的催化剂和安全隐患的定时炸弹。

良好的愿望只有在尊重事实、尊重科学和规律前提下，才有可能结下甜美的果实。主导公共工程的政府和官员，和市场主体相比，也并不天然地具备道德、智力和能力优越性。相反，从上到下的短期任期政绩追求、各式各样的献礼工程需要、“花别人钱办自己事”的内在腐败寻租逻辑等，都有可能导致公共工程质量普遍低于私人工程或者造价高于私人工程。

未来中国的安全与稳定发展，两大指标可以一目了然：公共工程迅速减少，发展权利还给市场和民众；政府收入逐步乃至迅速减少，社会财富还给民间。

中国啊，请你慢些走，停下飞奔的脚步，等一等你的人民，等一等你的灵魂，等一等你的道德，等一等你的良知！不要让列车脱轨，不要让桥梁坍塌，不要让道路成陷阱，不要让房屋成危楼。慢点走，让每一个生命都有自由和尊严，每一个人都不被“时代”抛下，每一个人都顺利平安地抵达终点！

注：最后一段文字，最早于24日凌晨1：33发于本人新浪微博，一天多时间28万次转载、3万余评论。今早（北京时间25日、美国时间24日）据悉上了《纽约时报》头条。

Train Wreck in China Heightens Unease on Safety Standards
 
Zhaoyun/European Pressphoto Agency
 
At least 43 people were killed near Wenzhou when two trains collided, sending cars plummeting off a viaduct. There was some confusion over the accident's cause.

By IAN JOHNSON

Published: July 24, 2011

BEIJING — A deadly train accident in eastern China has added to a national sense of unease that safety may have been sacrificed in the country’s rush to modernize.

By Sunday evening, 43 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage near Wenzhou, where a high-speed train that had lost power was struck from behind by another train on Saturday night, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Six cars derailed and four fell off a viaduct in the accident, which also injured 210 people.

In official, government-approved accounts of the accident, officials moved quickly to take charge of the situation. On Sunday morning, President Hu Jintao declared that rescue efforts were a top priority. The government also announced that three senior officials in the Railway Ministry had been fired. The railway minister was said to have taken charge of the rescue operation.

But competing narratives already began emerging Sunday. On the feisty microblogging site Sina Weibo, postings said that the minister, Sheng Guangzu, who took over this year when his predecessor was fired for corruption, had been cornered by angry journalists after he dodged interview requests.

Other reports on the site said the ministry was burying parts of the wrecked trains near the site, prompting critics to say that the wreckage needed to be carefully examined for causes of the malfunction. The Railway Ministry said the trains contained valuable “national level” technology that could be stolen and thus must be buried — even though foreign companies have long complained that the technology was actually stolen from their trains.

More confusion emerged over efforts to portray nature as the culprit in the accident. Xinhua reported Saturday that the first train lost power when it was hit by lightning, and national television broadcasts emphasized pictures of lightning storms in the area. But later reports by Xinhua said the supposedly stalled train was under way when it was struck by the other train. Also left unexplained was why railway signals did not stop the second train before it hit the first one.

An editorial with the headline “No Development Without Safety” on People’s Net, the government-run Web site affiliated with the party’s leading newspaper, People’s Daily, said the Railway Ministry had warned of the risks of lightning in a notice four days before the crash. It said new procedures were needed to prevent accidents. But it noted that these measures had not been put into effect, implying that the railway had no emergency plans for trains struck by lightning.

The editorial also made a broader point that spoke to widespread public dissatisfaction over safety.

“From public transport safety to coal mine safety to food safety, these accidents show that theoretically there is no problem with the conception of safety plans,” the influential site said. “But they are not executed properly.”

The train collision was one of several high-profile public transportation accidents in China recently. Early Friday morning, 41 people were killed when an overloaded bus caught fire in central Henan Province. Earlier this month, an escalator at a new subway station in Beijing collapsed, killing one person and injuring 28. Last week alone, four bridges collapsed in various Chinese cities.

Signaling the official concern over growing public unease, the government issued a directive on Saturday calling for “intensified efforts in preventing major deadly accidents.”

The discussion of accidents in China, however, is haphazard. In an unusually frank editorial in People’s Daily this month, a commentator said that many disasters were covered up but that the country needed “zero tolerance for concealing major accidents,” like a large oil spill that was hidden from the public for more than a month.

Fears that transparency and safety have become secondary to other concerns was present in many Weibo postings on Sunday. One blogger in particular posted an eloquent appeal for more care and caution in China’s rapid development: “China, please stop your flying pace, wait for your people, wait for your soul, wait for your morality, wait for your conscience! Don’t let the train run out off track, don’t let the bridges collapse, don’t let the roads become traps, don’t let houses become ruins. Walk slowly, allowing every life to have freedom and dignity. No one should be left behind by our era.”