Driver detained for deadly accident

A 36-year-old driver In Jiangyou, Sichuan province was detained for an accident which killed eight people and injured 19 others on Sunday afternoon.

The accident took place on Zhongyan Highway in Jiangyou at about 2:53 pm, when the driver surnamed Xu was driving a heavy semitrailer traction tanker full of fly ash from Shuanghe town in Jiangyou to the city proper.

When Xu's tanker went through a continuous downhill curve, it reached a speed between 57 and 63 kilometers per hour even though the speed limit of the section was 40 km/h, police said.

As the tanker designed to hold cement was filled with fly ash, its gravity center was too high, resulting in its overturning on the left and colliding with a bus running in the opposite direction first, then scraping a van and minibus coming in the opposite direction.

The accident caused seven deaths on the spot. One person died in hospital. Nineteen people were injured to varying degrees, and four vehicles involved were damaged, police said.

Contact the writer at huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn