Overpass gives way crashing cars beneath in China

A bridge suddenly collapsed and crashed down on a road beneath, devastating 3 vehicles, in China.

The structure is located in Wuxi city, north-west of Shanghai, in the province of Jiangsu. It is part of the 312 National Expressway, a major highway of China that stretches for almost 5000 kilometers beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang region.

The incident occurred at 6:00 pm on October 10, 2019. Unfortunately, the impact affected 3 cars in the roadway beneath and resulted in 3 fatalities and 2 injuries. Moreover, 3 more cars and 2 trucks were knocked over the bridge during the failure. 

According to local reports, 10 ambulances rushed at the scene and rescue efforts began as soon as possible. About 500 police officers participated in the rescue operations.

The dramatic failure is investigated by Wuxi city officials and China's Transport Ministry. According to a preliminary report, the collapse was caused by an overloaded truck.

The incident follows another breathtaking bridge collapse that occurred 10 days earlier in Taiwan. The structure fell on fishing boats killing 5 people. The actual causes of the failure have not been identified yet.

China has experienced a significant number of structural failures during the past years. According to experts, those failures mostly occur due to inadequate building standards. 

Back in 2011, 2 high-speed trains crashed due to design and construction flaws killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 192. Five years later, a group of residential buildings gave way in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, resulting in at least 22 more casualties. In early 2018, 8 people died after the ground in a metro line construction site caved in. This year, the roof of a commercial building, which was under renovation works, collapsed in Shanghai and at least 5 people were reported dead.

Click the video below to watch the terrifying moment the debris hit the cars beneath.