THE death toll from work place accidents in China fell 14.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the nation's top work safety official said yesterday.

The figure includes road accidents. In China, ordinary car accidents are included in the work place accident total.

In all 19,248 people were killed in 113,424 accidents, 18.3 percent fewer than a year earlier, said Wang Jun, head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

The toll from coal mine accidents fell 24.5 percent, while the death toll from road accidents slid 13.4 percent, said Wang, without elaborating.

"Despite the decline in the death toll, the work safety situation is still grim in the country," he told local work safety officials during a televised conference.

The number of fatal accidents that killed between 10 and 29 people at a time surged, he said. In total, 420 people were killed in 29 such accidents.

Illegal production has not been totally ended despite crackdowns - it was blamed for the deaths of 111 people in 16 mine accidents alone.

During the first quarter, work safety regulators also reported the cover-up of six coal mine accidents that each killed more than two people.

"We should have a sense of crisis and urgency," said Wang. "We also need to keep a clear head and avoid blind optimism and recklessness."