Screengrab from the video of the pile-up shared by AFP.
Zhengzhou (China): One person died during a highway pile-up involving hundreds of vehicles in central China, state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday, with images of the accident showing scenes of chaos.
Aerial pictures showed hundreds of passenger cars, vans and lorries — many of which had smashed into one another — piled up on one section of the highway in dense fog.
The accident occurred due to low visibility from fog near the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, and involved at least 200 vehicles, state media reported.
“On Wednesday morning, a sudden build-up of fog occurred at the Zhengxin Yellow River Bridge in Zhengzhou, which caused a traffic accident involving the collision of multiple vehicles,” CCTV cited Zhengzhou authorities as saying, adding that one person died as a result.
Zhengzhou traffic police said on their official social media account that traffic on the flyover had resumed as of Wednesday afternoon.
Emergency rescue efforts were carried out soon after the accident occurred, the CCTV report said.
A video shared on social media shows a car with a large hole in its smashed windscreen. Pedestrians are seen wandering around in front of smoking vehicles on the bridge.
Other footage shows several cars badly damaged, with one completely caved in at the front.
The fog is visible in many of the videos.
“This is too scary. Full of people here, I don’t think we can get off the bridge,” one person can be heard saying in one video clip.
Many of the injured were trapped in their vehicles, so the fire department dispatched 11 fire trucks and 66 fire rescue personnel to assist, according to state media.
According to media reports, more than 200 vehicles collided.
Cars traveling in both directions over the bridge, a major crossing of the Yellow River, were involved in numerous crashes, according to CCTV.
The bridge was later closed to all traffic by police.
“There was a huge pileup involving 400+ vehicles on Zhengxin Huanghe Bridge — which connects Henan’s Zhengzhou and Xinxiang across the Yellow River — due to dense fog and icy road surface at around 10 a.m. Dec 28 morning…” wrote one Twitter user.
Road accidents are common in China due to a lack of strict safety controls. In September, 27 passengers died after a bus transporting them to quarantine facilities in southwestern Guizhou province flipped over on a motorway.
(With inputs from agencies)