Workers check the scene after part of a bridge collapsed in Hangzhou yesterday when a truck carrying steel plates tried to cross. The truck toppled over the side of the bridge but the driver managed to jump out before it crashed to the ground. He escaped with a minor head injury and was released from hospital after treatment.
A TRUCK driver escaped by jumping from his cab when part of a road bridge collapsed in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province yesterday.
The accident was the second bridge collapse in the country in the past two days.
The city government said the truck was overloaded, but didn't respond to reporters' questions regarding the quality of the bridge's construction.
A car driver noticed a 6-meter long crack on the right lane of the bridge at around 2am yesterday. He tried to steer to the left but found his wheels stuck in the crack, the government told a press briefing.
When a semitrailer carrying steel plates arrived at the scene soon after, the driver turned right to avoid the car. The weight of the truck changed the crack to a cave-in, an official told reporters.
The truck toppled over the side of the bridge but the driver managed to jump out before it crashed to the ground.
He sustained a minor head injury but was released from hospital after treatment.
The bridge and several other roads linking to the bridge were closed for more than seven hours. When traffic resumed, large vehicles were not permitted and other vehicles were subject to a 30kph speed limit.
Hangzhou transport authorities said the truck was overloaded and more than 100 tons of steel plate were found at the scene. The truck was authorized to carry 34 tons.
The truck's owner, surnamed Xu, who arrived at the scene later, admitted the trailer was overloaded and that he knew trucks were banned on the bridge.
But he said that overloading trucks and taking the bridge as a shortcut was common practice in the local freight transport industry. "The transportation fee is 25 yuan for each ton, which means I could at most get 850 yuan if the vehicle's normally loaded," Xu said.
"However, the cost of the trip is around 2,000 yuan if the vehicle doesn't take the bridge shortcut."
The Qiantang River No. 3 Bridge opened in 1997 and links Hangzhou's city center with Xiaoshan International Airport. It handles about 50,000 vehicles each day.
But only eight years after it opened, the bridge went under reinforcement and repairs, which took a year and cost 68 million yuan.
After the renovation, the bridge was off-limits to trucks, and rumors spread that the bridge could be dangerous.
"We used to examine the bridge every week in the past two years," said an employee of the Hangzhou Henderson Qiantang River No. 3 Bridge Company, in charge of maintenance of the bridge, yesterday. He refused to be named or answer further questions.
On Thursday, one person was killed and 22 others were injured after a bridge collapsed in Fujian Province while a tourist bus was crossing.