Eleven people were killed and 39 injured when a bus skidded off the Harbin-Tongjiang Expressway and overturned in Yilan county, Heilongjiang province, around 5 pm on Saturday.
The driver was speeding at 130 km/ph despite the icy road and fog, and carrying 50 people, more than its capacity, said Wang Wenbo, deputy director of the Harbin-Tongjiang Expressway administrative office.
The injured have been admitted to hospital.
The accident left hundreds of vehicles and people stranded on a 4-km stretch of the expressway in cold temperature and snow.
Zhao Guangna, of the Heilongjiang meteorological center, said yesterday: "There will be more snow in the central and eastern parts of the province."
The local traffic information center said it began snowing on Thursday, forcing authorities to close several expressways.
The National Meteorological Center yesterday said the average temperature in North China would fall to below 8 C in the next three days, during which it could snow in Gansu province.
Snowfall has not only hit traffic movement in Heilongjiang, but also in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Icy roads forced the closure of No 312 highway, which runs from Shanghai to Yining in Xinjiang, for more than 20 hours till Saturday morning, leaving more than 1,400 people and 600 vehicles stranded.
The lowest temperature in eastern cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou will fall below 10 C in the next few days.
Source: China Daily
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