Colossal 200-Vehicle Pileup After Fog Descends on Bridge, Videos Show

More than 200 vehicles were involved in a major pileup in central China on Wednesday due to heavy fog, local authorities said.

Images taken on Zhengxin Huanghe Bridge, a major crossing connecting the cities of Zhengzhou and Xinxiang in Henan province, showed cars and trucks stopped sideways on the multilane road, which was closed to traffic for several hours.

In social media footage circulating on Weibo, Twitter and elsewhere, drivers and passengers were seen standing on top of cars to survey the wreckage after dozens of vehicles had rear-ended one another due to low visibility.

Zhengzhou traffic police said the pileup happened at roughly 7:40 a.m. local time on the southbound section of the bridge. Authorities estimated between 280 and 290 vehicles were involved in the accident.

Injured drivers and passengers were taken to local hospitals for treatment, said the emergency services. At least one person died as a result of the pileup, China's state media said.

Witnesses told the local media that thick fog and icy roads contributed to the series of crashes on the major crossing. Visibility on the bridge dropped to as low as 65 feet, they said.

Some vehicles were damaged, while others were unscathed but stuck in the pileup, which happened in three places, witnesses said.

A widely shared picture showed at least one SUV stuck on the roof of a sedan, which was surrounded by several other crashed cars at one section of the bridge.

Authorities announced the resumption of northbound traffic at just after 3 p.m. local time, but they were still clearing wreckage from the southbound section at the time of writing. Zhengzhou police didn't provide an estimate for when normal traffic would resume and has asked drivers to use alternate routes.

Aerial footage taken by local news site Sohu showed several dozen vehicles still remaining on the bridge after the fog had cleared. The crossing is one of several connecting the banks of the Yellow River, the second-longest in China.

Henan's weather service said areas including provincial capital Zhengzhou were experiencing visibility below 650 feet as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

Local traffic police also temporarily closed at least half a dozen other highways due to fog, an announcement on its social media account said.

In November 2016, heavy fog was also blamed for a major pileup involving dozens of vehicles in China's northern province of Shanxi, an accident in which 17 people were killed, the country's state media reported at the time.

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