On August 1st, a traffic accident occurred at the intersection of Ping’an Avenue and Hehua Road in Rongjiang New District, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. A heavily overloaded heavy-duty dump truck collided with an electric bicycle carrying a mother and her two daughters at a signal-less intersection. The 9-year-old daughter died on the spot, while the mother and her 5-year-old daughter were injured. The driver has been arrested.
On August 25th, the father of the children, Mr. Wu, told a reporter from the “Xiaoxiang Morning News” that on the day of the accident around 3 pm, his wife was riding the electric bike with their two daughters to attend a tutoring class. They were moving straight within the non-motorized lane when they were hit by a turning heavy-duty dump truck at an intersection without traffic signals. The 9-year-old daughter suffered fatal injuries and passed away on the spot. The mother and the 5-year-old daughter were hospitalized for more than twenty days. The younger daughter witnessed the tragic scene and still suffers from psychological trauma.
Mr. Wu stated, “The involved vehicle was overloaded by 92% and had brake malfunctions, which led to the tragedy that happened to our family.” He saw in the “Road Traffic Accident Determination Document” that the accident vehicle was carrying goods (approved total weight: 25,000KG, actual total weight: 48,159KG, overload weight: 23,159KG).
The determination document indicated that the accident was caused by the traffic violations and negligence of the dump truck driver, who bears full responsibility for the accident.
Mr. Wu mentioned that apart from holding the driver accountable for the traffic accident, he will also pursue the production safety responsibility of the company to which the offending vehicle belongs and the construction unit involved. He believes that this accident has exposed issues such as inadequate approval of transportation routes, rampant overloading of vehicles, and blank spots in enterprise safety management.
Mr. Wu stated that there are multiple schools surrounding the accident location, and allowing non-compliant heavy-duty dump trucks to traverse near school areas poses a significant public safety hazard. The relevant companies involved did not fulfill their responsibility for safety production.
In response to the issues raised by Mr. Wu, a journalist from the media contacted several departments, including the Urban and Rural Construction Bureau and the Economic Development Bureau of Rongjiang New District, as well as the companies involved. The mentioned institutions all referred to the unified response from the Rongjiang New District Integrated Media Center. A staff member from the media center mentioned that an accident investigation team has been established, and the findings will be published to the public.
Currently, the driver involved in the accident has been arrested.