Fatal mistake

Wallis Wang and Reuters

Five people were killed and two injured after a barge crashed into a 787-meter-long bridge in China's Pearl River Delta near Guangzhou yesterday.

The collision, which caused several vehicles to plunge into the river and severed the bridge, was caused by crew misconduct, Guangzhou authorities said.

The Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration said the vessel Lianghui 688 was traveling from Foshan city to a southern district of Guangzhou when it crashed into the bridge along the Hongqili Waterway at 5.30am.

Besides the gap in the span it could be seen the empty container barge was lodged between two columns of the Lixinsha Bridge, with part of its two-lane road deck gone.

Deputy director of the administration Yin Qiang said the crew had "mishandled" the barge, causing it to hit two columns of the bridge that led to its collapse.

Two trucks plunged into the water and three others - a bus without passengers, a truck and an electric motorbike - fell on the barge.

The bus driver, motorcyclist and three people on the two trucks that plunged into the water were killed, while two people were rescued and sent to hospital in stable condition. A crew member of the cargo barge also suffered injuries.

Yin said 15 rescue vessels and 122 emergency personnel were deployed to look for the two missing trucks. The two trucks were pulled from the water at around 4pm, and three people inside them were dead.

Authorities have launched an investigation, and the person in charge of the barge was arrested.

The barge's owner, a Foshan-based shipping company, said through an executive it will assist in the investigation and make compensation.

"The captain of the barge has been detained and we will bear the responsibility no matter whether we can afford it," the executive added.

The barge was last month fined 30,000 yuan (HK$33,270) for failing to have a lookout posted when passing through certain areas.

Lixinsha Bridge is the main and only transportation route for some 7,000 residents of Sanmin Island, though an official there said there was still a ferry available for residents to travel.

But some residents said they relied on the bridge to travel off the island every day.

"My brother usually went to work at around 5am. It's lucky he didn't go to work at that time today," one said. "Food at stores has been snatched up. We have to rely on government support if there is insufficient food."

The water supply to the island was also suspended as pipelines were mounted on the bridge. The water supplier said it would take four to five days to resume service.

Work to strengthen the bridge, which was built in 1992 and provides residents with a land connection to the cities of Zhongshan and Shenzhen, commenced in 2022 because of safety concerns.

But anti-collision and strengthening works have been delayed repeatedly. Transportation authorities has scheduled work to be completed in August.

A former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Aaron Bok Kwok-ming, said the bridge might not have adequate anti-collision facilities to withstand an impact.

"A bridge column should be protected by an independent structure, which is used to protect it from collision and make it stronger," Bok noted.

"However, we can see a tilted column hit by the barge is not protected by any large anti-collision facility."

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com