Chengdu, China— Five people are dead after a commercial truck slammed head-on into a passenger van on a narrow rural highway in Sichuan province Saturday morning.
The crash happened around 6:50 a.m. on a two-lane stretch of Provincial Highway S210, near a mountain curve with no central divider. The van was carrying workers to a nearby market. The truck was loaded with building materials.
Police said the van was ripped open. The truck’s front axle snapped and its cargo spilled across the road. Four passengers in the van died at the scene. The van driver died on the way to the county hospital. The truck driver survived with broken legs.
The road is notorious. Local drivers call it the ghost bend. No guardrail. No cameras. Fog sits low in the valley until mid-morning. Overtaking is constant because slow trucks crawl uphill.
“The van tried to pull back in, but there was no space,” a witness riding a motorcycle behind told traffic officers. “The truck did not brake. It just hit.”
Rural traffic enforcement in Sichuan has struggled with overloaded commercial vehicles and unlicensed passenger vans operating as informal shuttles. The van involved was licensed for seven but was carrying eight at the time. Seat belts were not in use.
Xinhua reported county officials closed the highway for four hours as investigators measured skid marks and debris fields. Breath tests on the truck driver came back negative for alcohol. Investigators seized the truck’s tachograph and dashcam.
The families of the victims, most from two neighboring villages, gathered at the county hospital. Local government offered emergency assistance and promised to review signage and speed limits on the stretch.
The wreckage has been cleared but police said the criminal investigation into dangerous driving and vehicle condition is still open.
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