More accidents caused by construction debris trucks: police
In an incident that took place at 2:33pm on March 16, a truck driver knocked down a motorist on an e-bike while making a right turn from Panlong Road onto Yinggang Road E. in Qingpu District. The e-bike rider perished in the collision. The driver was found to be speeding at the time of the accident.
A truck driver was held responsible for this accident at the crossroads of Jiasong Road N. and Changji Road E. in Jiading District at 5:12pm on March 25. The e-bike rider in the incident seen here also died. The driver was also found to be speeding when making a right turn.
Trucks built to carry construction debris are big and heavy, and their drivers are often reckless. Unfortunately, these vehicles are also bringing more danger to local roads, Shanghai police say.
While the overall number of traffic accidents and casualties in Shanghai dropped last year, those involving debris trucks bucked the trend.
Shanghai traffic police said on Monday that the number of accidents involving such trucks continued to rise in the first three months of this year.
During this period, debris trucks were involved in 528 accidents, 17.1 percent more than the same period last year, and 10 people were killed in 10 accidents, a drop of 37.5 percent, police said.
In five of the 10 accidents the truck driver took full responsibility, and in four of the five accidents the driver failed to properly give way to other traffic participants when making a right turn, according to the police.
In the first three months, every 100 such trucks were involved in 9.3 accidents, and each truck had 1.5 traffic offenses on average.
Speeding is one of the most frequent offenses for operators of such trucks, who are now being more closely monitored for driving too fast. In the first three months, an average of 6.7 speeding instances per truck were detected by the police using monitoring devices.
Shanghai traffic police held a meeting with representatives from about 160 trucking companies on Monday to educate them about the perils of dangerous driving behaviors.
Police said they will continue to crack down on traffic offenses from debris trucks and exert more pressure on companies to reign in reckless drivers.
