China‚Äôs Three Gorges Dam Project is witnessing more controversy. The wife of a construction worker who died while working on the site is now suing Rotec Industries, a U.S.-based manufacturer of conveyor systems that transport and place concrete. On Oct. 9, Ke Changli, a worker with the Gezhouba Corp., brought a lawsuit against Rotec, demanding 3.46 million renminbi (US$418,116) in compensation, according to the Oct. 13 Zhongguo Xinwen She (China News Service). Ke said that on Nov. 19 of last year, her husband, Ke Shanlin, was working in the lift of the Rotec-made No. 3 tower conveyer. He died when the door of the lift suddenly opened and he fell out. Bob Oury, CEO of Rotec, told ChinaOnline that his company is “right in the middle of delicate negotiations” with the Chinese and that he cannot go public with his side of the issue until later. “The equipment we sold is the best in the world,” Oury said. “But we want to be supportive of the Chinese, of our customers and of the Three Gorges Dam Project.”

 Oury, who was in China last week, added that what his company is doing is in the best interests of the Chinese. The purported quality defect of the same machine also caused heavy casualties at the site of the Three Gorges Project (click here to see map) on Sept. 3 of this year, resulting in three deaths, 20 serious injuries and 11 minor injuries, the article noted. During the Sept. 3 incident, the No. 3 Rotec tower conveyer at the dam’s flood discharging section suddenly collapsed while being repaired. As a part of the machine at the joint of the leather belt and the tower body broke, two of the machine‚Äôs arms (40 meters or 131 feet in length, and 20 tons in weight) and part of the leather belt fell from 17 meters (56 feet) high. All conveyers at the construction site had suspended operations on Sept. 3, but were once again put into use on Oct. 13.

 China claims faulty design, the investigation team of the Nov. 19 accident said that defects in the design and manufacturing of the conveyor were the main causes of the accident. According to the investigation report, the interlocking device for the lift door of the No. 3 tower conveyor was designed poorly, the article said. The article says that the lift was constructed poorly, since it could still operate even if the door was broken. Thus, the lift fell short of the safety standards set in China’s “Rules on the Testing of Construction Lifts,” “Technical Standards for Construction Lifts” and “Safety Rules for Construction Lifts.” After the Nov. 19 accident, the plaintiff said that she contacted the Representative Office of Rotec at the Three Gorges Dam site several times and asked for compensation, but that the defendant found various reasons to avoid taking responsibility, Zhongguo Xinwen She reported. Ke said that she was troubled by Rotec’s slow response to the exposed quality problems that led to the Sept. 3 accident. She added that Rotec would not learn its lesson unless it is forced to pay, the article noted.