On May 16, a pick-up truck carrying 15 people plunged into a river in Huanjiang County, Hechi City, Guangxi. As of May 19, the death toll had risen to 10, with only 5 survivors.
According to Xinhua News Agency, on the 19th, authorities in Huanjiang County, Guangxi, confirmed that all the missing individuals from the “5.16” bridge collapse incident had been accounted for. Only 5 people survived, while the remaining 10 tragically lost their lives. Currently, the investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.
The victims of this incident were mainly migrant workers engaged in sweet potato cultivation. On that fateful day, an employer had organized 28 people at Kenrentun Tea Plantation in Yongquan Village, Luoyang Town, for sweet potato farming. After work, 13 individuals left on their own, while the remaining 15 boarded the pick-up truck for the return journey. Tragically, the vehicle plunged into the river at the Manshui Bridge in Kenrentun.
A rural employer told Lianhe Zaobao that the migrant workers he could hire are generally older in age, with even 60 years old being considered relatively young. Allowing them to travel to work locations on their own via electric bikes can lead to the risk of getting lost, delaying work hours. Hence, employers usually provide transportation services. However, overloading vehicles to cut costs is a common practice.
Prior to this incident, on May 3, in Donggang City, Liaoning Province, a Ford Transit used to transport blueberry pickers lost control and crashed into a tree due to severe overloading, resulting in 8 deaths and 13 injuries. In June 2024 in Yexian County, Henan Province, a light-duty refrigerated van illegally carried 8 temporary female workers from a beef factory, all of whom tragically suffocated to death, and so forth.
In response to these incidents, Associate Professor Zhan Shaohua of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore pointed out that the involvement of elderly women in rural part-time work in China has a long history. Driven by economic and social factors, coupled with a lack of regulation in rural labor practices, similar accidents are likely to continue occurring in the future. He emphasized the need for local governments to play a regulatory role, especially in preventing overloading of small vehicles.