Readers in Beijing may have seen smoke billowing from a fire north of the city earlier today. It was caused by a traffic collision in the middle of an intersection near the famous Bird’s Nest stadium at the north entrance to Huizhongli in the city’s Chaoyang District.

It happened this morning at around 9:15. From the way the black SUV T-boned the silver sedan, it appears as though one of the drivers had run a red light.

No injuries have been reported.

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A car crash at Shenzhen’s Bao’an International Airport has killed nine people and injured at least another 23. The accident occurred after a red Mercedez-Benz veered off the road and crashed into a nearby overpass.

Although not designed for it, the overpass was popular among pedestrians watching planes take-off. Five people were killed immediately, and another two were pronounced dead at hospital. The driver, a 24 year-old said to be from Chongqing, is in intensive care.

The driver was apparently startled by honking horns and over-steered into the overpass, according to the driver’s boyfriend who was in the vehicle. One witness, a taxi driver named Yang, said the crash was so forceful that “a row of people were blown off the ground” and called the scene one of the scariest things he’s ever seen in his life.

Pedestrians are actually banned from the overpass, and airport security typically patrols the area to disperse them on a daily basis. Witnesses reported that there were no signs, or other markers, indicating that the area was off-limits.

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The number of injured victims has yet to be determined.

Photos: CCTV, Nandu Huizhou, New Capital Report, Liaoning First

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The roads of Guangdong remain a dangerous place as newly released provincial statistics show almost 5,000 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents so far this year.

As of November 25, there were 23,527 traffic accidents in Guangdong, resulting in 4,816 fatalities, 52 of which involved three or more fatalities, totalling 192 deaths.

Surprisingly, these numbers are actually an improvement over last year’s figures, representing a drop of 4.6 percent.

By way of comparison, the roads in Guangdong are safer than the roads in the United States on a per capita basis. California, a state almost as big as Guangdong but with approximately 60 million less people, had 3,081 traffic fatalities in 2009, almost twice that of Guangdong.

For National Traffic Safety Awareness Day, which takes place December 2, provincial police announced they will be focussing on speeding, overcrowding, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, running red lights, occupying designated traffic lanes, and stopping inside pedestrian walkways.

The number of motorists in China continues to grow at an alarming rate, now exceeding 300 million.

Photo: wzauto

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Witnesses say a few of the dozen or so passengers on board the bus were injured.  Police were able to arrest the suspected hijacker.

The incident is currently under investigation.

Photos: Sina Guangdong Report, Southern Daily, Sina Pictures

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A van carrying too many schoolchildren was involved in a traffic accident in Shandong Province that left 11 children and the van’s driver dead.

At 7:31am on Wednesday in Penglai, a tractor trailer carrying a full load of sand overturned onto the van, covering more than two-thirds of the vehicle. The roof of the van collapsed from the weight and shattered its windows. Three people in the van were lucky to suffer from only slight injuries. Xinhua reports the kids were on their way to kindergarten when the accident happened.

Police say the maximum occupancy of the van is eight people, but it had 15 people on board when the accident happened. The driver of the tractor trailer has been detained by police.

Public interest in instituting certified school buses peaked in 2011 after a traffic accident involving an unlicensed school vehicle caused the deaths of 18 schoolchildren. The vehicle was transporting a total 64 preschoolers, and was only equipped with nine seats.

This past July, 11 passengers that included schoolchildren were killed when a van drove into a reservoir in Southern China. Earlier in April, eight schoolchildren died in a bus crash in Hainan Province.

However, public interest in using these new school buses have since waned. As previously reported, a Zhejiang lot is currenty filled with 52 unused new school buses because no one is willing to pay for them.

Related:

• One killed and ten injured after school bus crash in Foshan
• School bus inferno: bus carrying 20 students catches fire in Longgang, Shenzhen

Photos: People’s Daily Online

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Texting while driving is a dangerous activity, a point driven home once again following a fatal collision in Jiangsu that could’ve been avoided.

A security camera on a public bus recorded the driver, a man named Gao, using his phone 39 times in the seven minutes leading up to a September 5 crash, reports Sina.

Gao can be seen in the video on his phone when he crashed into a cyclist, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Gao’s bus driver’s license was revoked, and he is currently facing criminal charges.

In a similar case, the driver of a coach bus (thankfully empty of passengers) collided with another vehicle while texting. Do you think that there is an increased incidence of distracted driving in China? Or is this par for the course?

Photos: People’s Daily Online

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Adding to the number of savvy Chinese that can spot such a scam, Weibo user “Piggy Sister That Doesn’t Want To Grow Up” published pictures that show “a clear and brazen case of the broken vase scam”.

READ: What the Broken Vase Scam Is, and How to Avoid Being Duped

The photographs show a man with an injured leg in the middle of the road outside the Nanjing Red Cross Society Hospital on the morning of September 17. A three-wheeled vehicle idles beside him as pedestrians and cyclists simply pass the fallen man.

When a non-Chinese man wearing dark green clothes comes forward to give help, he is criticized for having fallen for the “broken vase” scam. Of this, the Weibo user said, “The laowai can never understand…”

Many local shop owners said the incident happened after 7am when a non-Chinese man was seen speaking to the victim. Then he left, according to a reporter.

“Reminded Me of My Mother”

The reporter was able to track down the would-be good samaritan, a 30-something expat from the USA named “Sam” (a pseudonym) who is currently working in Nanjing. Sam said seeing the victim reminded him of his own mother, who was recently involved in a traffic accident herself.

However, Sam said he became very doubtful when he saw bystanders gathering to laugh at him. One bystander waved a hand at him and shouted, “No, no, no!”

READ: Guangzhou Drunk Drivers Extorted in Staged Collisions

Sam was not able to communicate with the man, who would only cover his forehead with his left hand and sporadically let out a shrill cry of pain. Sam saw he couldn’t do anything, so left. He said he couldn’t understand why the bystanders were trying to get him to stop.

“Broken Vase” or No “Broken Vase”?

For this to be a “broken vase” scam, the con artist would try to blame the fraud victim (Sam) for the accident and attempt to extort money, which didn’t happen. However, local Nanjing residents were still suspicious because the incident happened just outside of a hospital.

The Yueya Lake police sub-station confirmed the incident was not a “broken vase” scam, but something else entirely.

The story is this: Police from the Yueya Lake sub-station responded to a burglary at 1pm at Zhonghe Bridge after a man fell from a second story apartment. This unidentified man was not confirmed to be a thief, and was taken to Nanjing Red Cross Society Hospital to treat his broken leg.

The police say the unnamed man blamed police for the fall, and wants them to pay his hospital bill. Upon being discharged, the man lay down in the middle of the road as a way to claim his rights.

Related:

• Foreigners Ripped Off After Being Lured Into Shanghai Karaoke Den
• Hong Kong Taxi Scam Targets Drunk Foreigners
• 81 year-old woman knocked down in Guangzhou, bystanders ignore her
• Wolf of Wall Street? These are the Wolves of Shenzhen
• Beware: WeChat (Weixin) random hookup results in scam in Dongguan

Photos: 163.com

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The crash killed everyone inside the vehicle: the driver and two passengers, a man and a woman.

Other taxi drivers confirm it is very common for Beijing cabbies to work double shifts; sometimes they work for more than ten hours at a time.

To make matter worse, safety belts are not provided for passengers riding in the back seat of Beijing taxi cabs, something that is common in many other Chinese cities. Instead, the harnesses are often pushed inside the seat cushion and aren’t available.

Earlier this year, a Dongguan taxi driver died after working a 24 hour shift.

Related:

• Foreigner Charged RMB 2,700 for a Ride in a Fake Taxi in Beijing
• Forget Regular Guangzhou Taxis, Now You Too Can Be a High-Roller
• Dongguan taxi drivers forced to pay RMB92,000 in “tea money” fee

Photos: Caijing

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The traffic collision occurred this afternoon after three o’clock on national highway #318 near Lhasa towards Shigatse in Nyemo County. Preliminary reports say a passenger bus, an off-road or sport utility vehicle, and a pick-up were all involved in the three-vehicle collision. As a result, the tour bus carrying over 40 passengers plummeted off a cliff estimated at 10 meters high.

The specific number of casualties is currently unknown, although preliminary reports indicate that many have died and more are injured. The passengers are said to all be Chinese nationals.

Rescue operations are underway.

UPDATE 1:04am August 10: Here are more pictures from the scene.

Photo: Yangcheng Evening Report, People’s Daily

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