The owner of a seaweed farm in east China's Jiangsu Province has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after being found responsible for an accident in mid-April in which 19 people, including his wife, drowned, according to the People's Court of Rudong County.

The accident occurred at 8:45 PM on April 15 on the laver farm near the coastal Hezao Village in Rudong, when farm owner Liu Songquan, his wife and 17 workers were collecting laver, a kind of edible seaweed, the court heard.

It was late in the day and workers on other farms had already stopped working for the day. But Liu forced his employees to work overtime.

When they finally began to make their way back to the village, their two tractors, under the weight of the heavy seaweed, became bogged down in the mud.

Liu called for another couple, the owners of a neighboring seaweed farm, to come and pick them up in another tractor, but just as they arrived the tide came in and swept them out to sea.

Only two men, including Liu, were rescued. The bodies of three men and 16 women were later recovered from the sea. Liu was subsequently detained on April 19.

The judges ruled that Liu was accountable for failing to organize his employees to escape when the tide came in. He was also blamed for failing to ensure that either himself or his employees had received technical training on maritime safety and that his tractor drivers had no driving licenses.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2007)