THE Governor of Hunan, Chen Bangzhu, yesterday refused to take responsibility for an accident at a railway station in his province last month that killed more than 40 people. He said such an accident was ''inevitable'' in any overcrowded train station. Mr Chen was asked by reporters in Beijing whether special measures should be taken to solve the traffic problem at the Hengyang station, a popular transit point for commuters. Mr Chen said the Government could not guarantee that a similar type of accident would not happen again. ''Such incidents can happen in any country of the world. My view is that we have to work hard to try to reduce [the risk],'' he said. ''But I mean there are so many big train stations in the world, it's nothing strange or rare.'' Mr Chen said the Government had already increased manpower at the station to control the crowds. He said the fact that Hunan was a transit point for job-seekers who travelled from other parts of the country had led to the problem of overcrowding. But he claimed that the number of job-seekers from Hunan was declining. He said about one million people travelled out of the province last year in search of work in other parts of the country. However, he sidestepped a question on whether measures would be adopted to stop the outflow of job-seekers. He said the Government could not control the flow of labour because the development of the labour market had to proceed through the co-ordination of the central Government. ''We are a socialist market economy and the labour force should be developed.'' But he failed to provide an estimate on the number of departing job-seekers who left for the south without notifying the Government. ''People do come from everywhere - ours is the main route linking the south and the north,'' the provincial chief said. Mr Chen said the Ministry of Railways was conducting an investigation into the cause of the accident, but he refused to divulge any details. ''Of course I do know about the review, but I am not the one responsible and cannot give much information,'' he said.