Truck crashed into people waiting in front of a crematorium in China: 17 dead

Another 22 were injured and taken to the hospital, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday. The accident happened just after midnight in Taoling Village, southeast of Nanchang City in eastern Jiangxi Province.

Because of the strong rush to the crematorium, relatives and friends waited outside and had set up offerings for the dead on the side of the road, as residents reported to the state agency. They would have wanted to be present at the cremation the next morning. The cause of the accident is being investigated, it said. Many of the dead were from Taoling Village.

Shortly after the accident became known, the police warned motorists of “foggy weather” in the region. “There is poor visibility, which can easily lead to traffic accidents,” it said.

It was not mentioned whether the cremation facility, like so many others in the current massive corona wave in China, was overloaded with the high number of Covid 19 victims. State media have been reporting long waiting times, traffic jams and queues in front of crematoria for weeks because the large number of bodies cannot be cremated quickly enough.

Traffic accidents are common in China due to a lack of security checks. In December, one person died in a pile-up involving hundreds of vehicles. In September, 27 people were killed when the bus that was taking them to quarantine facilities in the south-west of the country overturned.