In the early morning of May 1, a sudden disaster broke the silence of the night on the Chayang section of the Meilong Expressway (Meida Section), about two kilometers from the exit. The pavement of the highway suddenly collapsed, engulfing the advancing vehicles.
As of 11:45 a.m. that day, rescuers carefully checked the scene and found that 18 vehicles had fallen into the dark abyss, and many people were trapped at the scene. A total of 31 people were rescued and hospitalized. Sadly, 24 people have been confirmed to have lost their lives in the accident, while the rest are in non-life-threatening condition under the full treatment of the hospital. The road collapse caused by the disaster is about 17.9 meters long and covers an area of about 184.3 square meters. It is worth mentioning that in this accident, no large vehicles such as hazardous vehicles and buses were found, which is undoubtedly a blessing in misfortune.
After the accident, Guangdong Province quickly set up an accident rescue site headquarters, and public security, emergency response, fire protection, health, transportation, mine rescue teams and other forces quickly assembled, and invested about 500 people to participate in the on-site rescue. In addition, the accident personnel have been arranged to be treated in relevant hospitals, and ambulances from all towns and villages in Dapu County have rushed to the scene to participate in the rescue.
One car owner experienced the thrilling accident firsthand and posted on social media that multiple cars had fallen from the highway at the scene of the accident, some of which were even on fire. At this critical moment, an elderly car owner stepped forward, quickly stopped the car, and resolutely ran back hundreds of meters, bravely intercepting passing vehicles to prevent more vehicles from falling into this disaster.
A local resident of Dapu County said that the place where the highway collapsed was located in Chayang Town, Dapu County, Meizhou City. This highway has been built and opened to traffic for many years, and the section of the road where the incident occurred belongs to the local mountain section, not a viaduct. It has been raining in the area for nearly a month, and there is a landslide near the road where the incident occurred.
At present, the specific cause of the collapse is still unknown. However, through the public information in the past, we can understand that the topography and geology of the Meida Expressway are complex and the safety risk is high.
Therefore, after the completion of the Meida Expressway, there have been more than one accidents caused by natural disasters along the route, such as a large landslide in early May 2023 a year ago. In fact, the recent heavy rainfall in Guangdong has also put the highway to the test, which has been built less than 10 years ago.