Icy conditions led to a 20-vehicle collision on a Liaoning highway near Jinzhou. It took a turn for the worse when one of the vehicles, a truck carrying fireworks, exploded and burned several vehicles beyond recognition.
The number of injured victims has yet to be determined.
Photos: CCTV, Nandu Huizhou, New Capital Report, Liaoning First
The roads of Guangdong remain a dangerous place as newly released provincial statistics show almost 5,000 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents so far this year.
As of November 25, there were 23,527 traffic accidents in Guangdong, resulting in 4,816 fatalities, 52 of which involved three or more fatalities, totalling 192 deaths.
Surprisingly, these numbers are actually an improvement over last year’s figures, representing a drop of 4.6 percent.
By way of comparison, the roads in Guangdong are safer than the roads in the United States on a per capita basis. California, a state almost as big as Guangdong but with approximately 60 million less people, had 3,081 traffic fatalities in 2009, almost twice that of Guangdong.
For National Traffic Safety Awareness Day, which takes place December 2, provincial police announced they will be focussing on speeding, overcrowding, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, running red lights, occupying designated traffic lanes, and stopping inside pedestrian walkways.
The number of motorists in China continues to grow at an alarming rate, now exceeding 300 million.
Photo: wzauto
A man hijacked a Zhongshan public bus at knifepoint, causing the moving bus to collide with some 20 vehicles along a city bridge. It happened on Friday around 3pm, closing down the entire Zhongshan Harbor Bridge was closed down in both directions.
Witnesses say a few of the dozen or so passengers on board the bus were injured. Police were able to arrest the suspected hijacker.
The incident is currently under investigation.
Photos: Sina Guangdong Report, Southern Daily, Sina Pictures
A van carrying too many schoolchildren was involved in a traffic accident in Shandong Province that left 11 children and the van’s driver dead.
At 7:31am on Wednesday in Penglai, a tractor trailer carrying a full load of sand overturned onto the van, covering more than two-thirds of the vehicle. The roof of the van collapsed from the weight and shattered its windows. Three people in the van were lucky to suffer from only slight injuries. Xinhua reports the kids were on their way to kindergarten when the accident happened.
Police say the maximum occupancy of the van is eight people, but it had 15 people on board when the accident happened. The driver of the tractor trailer has been detained by police.
Public interest in instituting certified school buses peaked in 2011 after a traffic accident involving an unlicensed school vehicle caused the deaths of 18 schoolchildren. The vehicle was transporting a total 64 preschoolers, and was only equipped with nine seats.
This past July, 11 passengers that included schoolchildren were killed when a van drove into a reservoir in Southern China. Earlier in April, eight schoolchildren died in a bus crash in Hainan Province.
However, public interest in using these new school buses have since waned. As previously reported, a Zhejiang lot is currenty filled with 52 unused new school buses because no one is willing to pay for them.
Related:
Photos: People’s Daily Online
Texting while driving is a dangerous activity, a point driven home once again following a fatal collision in Jiangsu that could’ve been avoided.
A security camera on a public bus recorded the driver, a man named Gao, using his phone 39 times in the seven minutes leading up to a September 5 crash, reports Sina.
Gao can be seen in the video on his phone when he crashed into a cyclist, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Gao’s bus driver’s license was revoked, and he is currently facing criminal charges.
In a similar case, the driver of a coach bus (thankfully empty of passengers) collided with another vehicle while texting. Do you think that there is an increased incidence of distracted driving in China? Or is this par for the course?
Photos: People’s Daily Online
The “broken vase” trick is a scam in China where con artists feign being accident victims in order to win cash settlements from unsuspecting people that think they are at fault. It’s an old scam with many variations, and it’s a main reason why Chinese people are usually more than reluctant to help anyone in need, lest they became victims of fraud themselves.
Adding to the number of savvy Chinese that can spot such a scam, Weibo user ”Piggy Sister That Doesn’t Want To Grow Up” published pictures that show “a clear and brazen case of the broken vase scam”.
READ: What the Broken Vase Scam Is, and How to Avoid Being Duped
The photographs show a man with an injured leg in the middle of the road outside the Nanjing Red Cross Society Hospital on the morning of September 17. A three-wheeled vehicle idles beside him as pedestrians and cyclists simply pass the fallen man.
When a non-Chinese man wearing dark green clothes comes forward to give help, he is criticized for having fallen for the “broken vase” scam. Of this, the Weibo user said, “The laowai can never understand…”
Many local shop owners said the incident happened after 7am when a non-Chinese man was seen speaking to the victim. Then he left, according to a reporter.
“Reminded Me of My Mother”
The reporter was able to track down the would-be good samaritan, a 30-something expat from the USA named “Sam” (a pseudonym) who is currently working in Nanjing. Sam said seeing the victim reminded him of his own mother, who was recently involved in a traffic accident herself.
However, Sam said he became very doubtful when he saw bystanders gathering to laugh at him. One bystander waved a hand at him and shouted, “No, no, no!”
READ: Guangzhou Drunk Drivers Extorted in Staged Collisions
Sam was not able to communicate with the man, who would only cover his forehead with his left hand and sporadically let out a shrill cry of pain. Sam saw he couldn’t do anything, so left. He said he couldn’t understand why the bystanders were trying to get him to stop.
“Broken Vase” or No “Broken Vase”?
For this to be a “broken vase” scam, the con artist would try to blame the fraud victim (Sam) for the accident and attempt to extort money, which didn’t happen. However, local Nanjing residents were still suspicious because the incident happened just outside of a hospital.
The Yueya Lake police sub-station confirmed the incident was not a “broken vase” scam, but something else entirely.
The story is this: Police from the Yueya Lake sub-station responded to a burglary at 1pm at Zhonghe Bridge after a man fell from a second story apartment. This unidentified man was not confirmed to be a thief, and was taken to Nanjing Red Cross Society Hospital to treat his broken leg.
The police say the unnamed man blamed police for the fall, and wants them to pay his hospital bill. Upon being discharged, the man lay down in the middle of the road as a way to claim his rights.
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Photos: 163.com
Three people traveling in a Beijing taxi cab have died after a collision in which the driver is suspected of being extremely tired from working a double shift, reports Caijing. The taxi collided with a tree while heading west on Third Ring Road nearby Wanfangting Park on Sunday morning.
The crash killed everyone inside the vehicle: the driver and two passengers, a man and a woman.
Other taxi drivers confirm it is very common for Beijing cabbies to work double shifts; sometimes they work for more than ten hours at a time.
To make matter worse, safety belts are not provided for passengers riding in the back seat of Beijing taxi cabs, something that is common in many other Chinese cities. Instead, the harnesses are often pushed inside the seat cushion and aren’t available.
Earlier this year, a Dongguan taxi driver died after working a 24 hour shift.
Related:
Photos: Caijing
A tour bus carrying over 40 Chinese tourists has plummeted off a cliff in a multi-vehicle accident on a highway in Tibet, reports CCTV News.
The traffic collision occurred this afternoon after three o’clock on national highway #318 near Lhasa towards Shigatse in Nyemo County. Preliminary reports say a passenger bus, an off-road or sport utility vehicle, and a pick-up were all involved in the three-vehicle collision. As a result, the tour bus carrying over 40 passengers plummeted off a cliff estimated at 10 meters high.
The specific number of casualties is currently unknown, although preliminary reports indicate that many have died and more are injured. The passengers are said to all be Chinese nationals.
Rescue operations are underway.
UPDATE 1:04am August 10: Here are more pictures from the scene.
A traffic collision of near-Blues Brotherian proportions happened today in Shenzhen, and here are the pictures to challenge you to figure it out.
The six car pile-up occurred at 1:50pm at Nigang West Road and City No.2 Hospital Road, according to the Shenzhen Traffic Police. Two people have already be taken to hospital for medical care.
A large truck at the rear of the pile-up is marked as belonging to the Shenzhen Benda Electric Cable Company. According to police at the scene, the truck driver said his vehicle lost control of its brakes.
At the very least, we hope Jake and Elwood are able to save the orphanage.
Photos: Shenzhen Traffic Police (2), Weibo
Foreigners who helped out at the scene of a traffic accident in Shanghai have been hailed as “foreign Lei Fengs”, reports iFeng.
It started in the morning of July 27 when two cars headed towards Pudong Airport were involved in a traffic collision. Five people in one of the vehicles were hurt, and another four were ejected from the car. One of those has sustained life-threatening injuries.
It just so happened that at the same time, some Air France staff were driving by the scene and got out of their vehicle. The French airline staff provided medical aid and directed traffic with safety vests on.
The report emphasizes the airline personnel were not directly involved in the accident, but were simply passing by when they decided to get involved.
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Photos: iFeng, Guangzhou Daily
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