16 dead, 66 injured in Changsha road accidents

Within 10 minutes, five vehicle collision accidents have occurred on an expressway in Hunan province on Saturday. The accidents have left 16 dead and another 66 injured, according to local traffic police.

The accidents happened at around 5 pm in Wangcheng district in Hunan capital Changsha, it said. The most deadly rear-end collisions involved seven vehicles and claimed seven lives.

Another three accidents, which saw 11, 10 and 9 vehicles collide, each killed three people, it said. Twelve vehicles knocked into each other in the other accident, but thankfully no fatalities occurred.

All of the 66 injured people have been hospitalized. Eight of them are seriously injured but remain in stable conditions, the traffic police said.

A team from the Ministry of Emergency Management has rushed to Changsha to guide the local governments in dealing with the aftermath. The team, led by Li Wanchun, the ministry's chief engineer, consists of mainly medical experts.