7 perish in foggy highway vehicle pileups
By Li Qian |
November 27, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SEVEN people were killed and 35 others injured in multiple vehicle pileups caused by fog on sections of a highway in east China's Shandong Province, traffic police said.
As heavy fog shrouded the province yesterday morning, at least 22 accidents involving hundreds of vehicles happened on the Beijing-Taipei Highway (Highway G3).
Seven crashes occurred in the Tai'an section, leaving one dead and 11 injured, while 15 crashes occurred on the expressway's Ningyang section, killing six and injuring another 24, Qilu Evening News reported.
Online pictures show mangled remains of sedans and sports utility cars after they crashed into the metal fence placed along the highway and heavy-loaded trucks rolled over, with windows and truck bodies scattered on the wet road.
The highway was reopened at 3pm following the rescue work, the paper said.
Nearly 50 highway entrances in southeastern parts of Shandong were temporarily closed as the fog reduced visibility to less than 50 meters in some areas. The fog also caused traffic jam in some sections with one queue of vehicles stretching back over 10 kilometers.
A red fog alert was issued by the meteorological authority of Liaocheng City while an orange alert was issued by Heze City.
The highway network is a partially completed expressway that, when completed, will connect the Chinese mainland with Taipei, capital city of Taiwan, and is a main trunk route in China's national highway plan.
The 2,030-kilometer four-lane highway passes through Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian.
Though local officials speak highly of it, the Jinan section, dubbed a "deadly highway," has long been plagued with safety issues. Since 1999, a four-kilometer downhill road in Manshou Mountain has killed nine people on average per year.
Preliminary investigation showed the section, full of twists and turns, has a sunken road section at the edge of the mountain, which makes it easy for vehicles to turn over, Ji'nan Times reported earlier.
But the contractor has refused to repair the road in spite of authority's demands because it would cost hundreds of millions of yuan, officials said.
Villagers live near the highway even see a potential fortune from the "deadly highway." They have set up lookout towers on top of their houses to monitor the road in order to rush to the accident site in time to earn "rescue fees," the paper said.
As heavy fog shrouded the province yesterday morning, at least 22 accidents involving hundreds of vehicles happened on the Beijing-Taipei Highway (Highway G3).
Seven crashes occurred in the Tai'an section, leaving one dead and 11 injured, while 15 crashes occurred on the expressway's Ningyang section, killing six and injuring another 24, Qilu Evening News reported.
Online pictures show mangled remains of sedans and sports utility cars after they crashed into the metal fence placed along the highway and heavy-loaded trucks rolled over, with windows and truck bodies scattered on the wet road.
The highway was reopened at 3pm following the rescue work, the paper said.
Nearly 50 highway entrances in southeastern parts of Shandong were temporarily closed as the fog reduced visibility to less than 50 meters in some areas. The fog also caused traffic jam in some sections with one queue of vehicles stretching back over 10 kilometers.
A red fog alert was issued by the meteorological authority of Liaocheng City while an orange alert was issued by Heze City.
The highway network is a partially completed expressway that, when completed, will connect the Chinese mainland with Taipei, capital city of Taiwan, and is a main trunk route in China's national highway plan.
The 2,030-kilometer four-lane highway passes through Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian.
Though local officials speak highly of it, the Jinan section, dubbed a "deadly highway," has long been plagued with safety issues. Since 1999, a four-kilometer downhill road in Manshou Mountain has killed nine people on average per year.
Preliminary investigation showed the section, full of twists and turns, has a sunken road section at the edge of the mountain, which makes it easy for vehicles to turn over, Ji'nan Times reported earlier.
But the contractor has refused to repair the road in spite of authority's demands because it would cost hundreds of millions of yuan, officials said.
Villagers live near the highway even see a potential fortune from the "deadly highway." They have set up lookout towers on top of their houses to monitor the road in order to rush to the accident site in time to earn "rescue fees," the paper said.
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