Trucks bottled up in three-day traffic jam
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-16 06:04

However, most drivers are innocent of overloading.

"The problem of overload is not so serious now but we must check one by one," said Sun Lixin, head of the Zhangshanying Check Station.

Li Hua, a driver from Baotou of the Inner Mongolia, is among the innocent.

"Why we should spend two or three more days waiting? I never drive overloaded," said Li.

Being in the chilly winter for three days, he said he has only eaten a bowl of instant noodle each day. "You cannot eat much because it's likely that there is nowhere you can buy it in the mountainous area."

To save fuel, Li only run his engine at time when he really couldn't bear the low temperatures.

"The fuel price is too high and the delay has added my cost," said Li, whose destination is Huzhou City of East China's Zhejiang Province.

Despite that, the check station head Sun said authorities are determined to further strengthen supervision efforts along the road.

"We are alarmed by the accidents and should team up with efforts," said Sun, whose station used to check 2,500 vehicles daily but since Monday, the number of lorries running along the road has been doubled.

The Beijing municipal government was alarmed by an accident on the Badaling Expressway earlier this month, when 24 passengers were killed in a collision with a lorry at a site near a notorious area called "Death Valley."

Monday, Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan attributed pervasive overloads of lorries to the frequent accidents on Badaling Expressway.

National Highway 110 has become the only choice for vehicles that want to travel south by way of Beijing once banned from using the expressway.

(China Daily 12/16/2005 page2)