Overpasses shouldn't collapse easily

Four overloaded trucks weighing more than 400 tons caused a collapse in a section of an overpass built in 2011 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, on Aug 24, killing three, says an article in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

After more than 20 days of investigations, authorities in Harbin said that the construction quality of the overpass was adequate and that the overloaded trucks were the direct cause for the accident.

The conclusions did not dispel suspicions about the quality of the construction, because a number of clues indicating the poor quality of the overpass construction have been uncovered from various sources since the accident.

The authorities did not quote any statistics about the overpass and just jumped to the conclusion that it is a solid construction project. If the construction companies and project supervision departments get away with it this time, then overloaded trucks may become an easy excuse for similar accidents in the future.

Since overloading is a common problem in China's road transportation system, the builders and designers of the overpass should have made sure that the project was able to sustain heavy trucks. Otherwise, the overpass is very dangerous not only for the truck drivers but also for the other people driving on or passing under it.

Since the current findings are against common sense, local authorities should provide reliable data to convince the public of their conclusions in the future.