Huge pile up of 200 cars on Chinese bridge leaves one dead after heavy fog reduced visibility

One person was killed on Wednesday when more than 200 vehicles were involved in a pile-up on a bridge in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou in heavy fog, rescuers and the CCTV state broadcaster reported.

Cars and trucks could be seen crumpled and piled on top of each other on the Zhengxin Huanghe bridge in pictures and videos posted on social media. One car was jack-knifed in the middle of a pile in an image taken from CCTV footage.

Another video shared on social media shows a car with a large hole in its smashed windscreen. Pedestrians are seen wandering around in front of smoking vehicles on the bridge.

Other footage shows several cars badly damaged, with one completely caved in at the front.

The fog is visible in many of the videos.

‘This is too scary. Full of people here, I don’t think we can get off the bridge,’ one person can be heard saying in one video clip.

Many of the injured were trapped in their vehicles and the fire department sent 11 fire trucks and 66 fire rescue personnel to help, state media reported.

Visibility in many areas was less than 500 metres on Wednesday morning and down to 200 metres at times, the meteorological service said.

Rescuers said more than 200 vehicles had slammed into each other, media reported.

CCTV reported that cars travelling in both directions over the bridge, a major crossing of the Yellow River, were involved in numerous crashes.

Police later closed the bridge to all traffic.

On Twitter user wrote: ‘There was a huge pileup involving 400+ vehicles on Zhengxin Huanghe Bridge (郑新黄河大桥) — which connects Henan’s Zhengzhou and Xinxiang across the Yellow River — due to dense fog and icy road surface at around 10am Dec 28 morning…’