The recent heavy rains have resulted in scores of traffic accidents around Nanjing. In one of the more dramatic, over 10,000 iPhones have been lost when a large truck overturned and caught fire on the Nanjing-Shanghai highway between Tangshan Town and Nanjing City.
The accident happened yesterday, 23 June, at approximately 10am, as the truck was driving along the G42 highway westward towards Nanjing.
Among the freight onboard were over 10,000 Apple iPhones, reports The Paper, with a street value of up to ¥50 million.
The driver of the truck claims he was trying to avoid a broken down car, during which the sudden and violent turn caused the truck to overturn during heavy rain. After the accident, the vehicle immediately caught fire and the freight onboard was seriously damaged.
A number of rear-end collisions also took place among vehicles tailing the truck, reports Modern Express.
According to witnesses, after the truck overturned, it occupied the highway’s two left-most lanes.
As a result of the accident, traffic towards Nanjing was backed up as far as the service area at Huanglishu. It took police until 1pm to restore traffic on three of the highway’s four lanes. No casualties were reported.
The G42 is one of China’s vital primary routes, being one of the “five vertical and seven horizontal” roads that form the country’s national trunk highway network. The G42 is also known as the Shanghai-Chengdu Highway, a 1,960 kilometre artery that takes in the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Sichuan; their capital cities of Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan and Chengdu; and the municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing. The route was completed in 2014.
The G42 is also the main road link between Nanjing and Shanghai, well known for enormous tailbacks during bad weather, holiday periods and after accidents. All three are commonplace.
