At 2 am, July 15, 2011, the part of Hangzhou Qiantang River Bridge suddenly collapsed, a truck loaded with steel falling from the bridge. The driver was injured for jumped from the truck.
It is known that the collapsed bridge was about 30 meters from the ground. The bridge was opened to traffic in 1997. The total length of the bridge is 5700 meters, including 1280 m of the main bridge. It is the important channel to connect the old city, Binqiang Distric and Xiaoshan Distric, and Xiaoshan International Airport.
According to a driver who reported the accident to the police, when he was driving a BMW car on the bridge, he suddenly found a crack about 5-6m on the surface of front road. Then he quickly changed the direction, but hit the bridge pier. It was lucky to the air bag opened. However, a lager truck suddenly came and directly pressured the crack, leading to the section of the bridge collapsed.
At the present, the accident was under investigatation. The injured driver has been taken to hospital.
Source: Chinanews.com
Translated and edited by Ma Xin
Ma Xin is an editor of M4.cn and can be reached at tomaxin@163.com.