On Wednesday, December 28, fog on the Zhengxin Huanghe bridge in Zhengzhou, China, became so heavy that it caused cars to continuously crash, leading to a massive 200-car pileup. Sadly, one person was killed and countless people were left injured and stranded, according to Reuters.
The heavy fog had reduced visibility to less than 200 meters (656 feet) at certain points, according to local meteorologists. However, a video from someone walking through the wreckage shows visibility that looks barely farther than a few dozen meters. Making matters even worse, emergency services couldn’t reach many of the injured drivers and passengers, who were trapped in their cars. Eleven fire trucks and 66 rescue personnel were sent to help.
Seen from a news helicopter, the pileup looked like it stretched a half-mile. Not every car in the pileup was heavily damaged, with some just stuck in between crashed cars. However, some cars were slammed and pinned in between others, with a few cars even wedged underneath others. It looked like the aftermath of a disaster movie, with cars piled into each other, fog and smoke everywhere, and bits of glass and metal lining the bridge’s pavement.
Only one side of the bridge piled up, while the opposite side of the bridge’s traffic was thankfully clear. Had both sides of the bridge been backed up, it would have been considerably worse and more difficult for emergency personnel to get through. It’s unclear how long people were stranded on the bridge for but any amount of time can be catastrophic while people are injured.
Local police obviously shut the bridge down afterward, to clear the 200-plus cars that were crashed or stuck. It must have been a logistical nightmare to figure out what to do with all the wrecked cars. But it will also be interesting to see if any measures are taken to try and prevent massive pileups like this again.
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