4 killed as overloaded truck sinks bridge

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-30 08:22

An overloaded truck is believed to have caused yesterday's bridge collapse in northern China that sent vehicles and people plunging into the river below.

4 killed as overloaded truck sinks bridge

Rescue workers try to clear the debris of a collapsed road bridge in Tieli, Heilongjiang province. The collapse killed four persons and injured another five. Wang Song

Four were killed and eighteen people were rescued from the Hulan River in Heilongjiang, and rescuers needed two cranes to hoist seven trucks and one van from the waters.

The bridge is a main route into Tieli, a city under the administration of Yichun city.

The rescue was ongoing by press time.

Tieli Mayor Zhang Yang told China Central Television that the bridge, built in 1973 and repaired in 1997, collapsed because of a truck overloaded with construction materials, but the river was only about two meters deep.

He said the overloaded truck may have been heavier than 60 tons.

The city's public security department first received a report at 2:34 am that part of the Hulan Bridge collapsed while an overloaded truck from the provincial capital Harbin was crossing it.

Five people were injured in the collapse and one died in the hospital despite efforts to save him, said Vice-Mayor Li Qingsheng.

Traffic on the entire bridge was disrupted.

It's not known how many vehicles were on the bridge when the incident occurred.

Xinhua - China Daily