At least 15 die in 31-vehicle pile-up on notorious highway

The death toll in a 31-vehicle pile-up on an expressway in Northwest China’s Gansu Province on Saturday evening has risen to 15 with 44 injured, local authorities said on Sunday morning.

Ten of the 44 injured people are in serious condition, according to the local government.

A crane truck lost control and crashed into a line of vehicles 50 meters from the Lanzhou South Toll Station on the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway at 7:21 pm in Lanzhou.

The truck driver, who suffered minor injuries, is under police custody and is being investigated. The driver said the vehicle had a brake failure in the downhill section of the expressway leading to the toll booth. The Gansu provincial authorities ordered an examination of dangerous sections of expressways across the province.

According to National Business Daily, the 17-kilometerlong downhill section of the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway is prone to traffic accidents caused by out-of-control trucks. If a truck loses control it could slam into other parked vehicles waiting at the toll booths to enter the city.

Since the opening of the highway on June 15, 2013, 240 vehicles have lost control on the downhill section of the expressway, resulting in 42 deaths and 55 injuries, highway statistics show.

Eighteen accidents were caused by trucks rushing to get into the city. Thirty-one people were killed and 36 were injured in those accidents. In 2012 alone, there were 55 accidents caused by out-of-control vehicles on the downhill section, resulting in nine deaths.