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7 Apr 2014

On the road in China

I'm back from Hong Kong and China and will be sorting out the photos in the next few days.A couple for starters.Firstly a very large car transporter seen on the expressway south of Guilin on last Sunday morning.This monster was long and as you can see it carries a double row of cars on the top deck making it a very wide vehicle.No signage to indicate that it is a wide load and as we approached it I saw a double deck coach pass it and the coach was pretty close to the top deck.I have no idea whether these transporters are restricted to certain roads but as it is China I doubt it.
Road safety does not seem front of mind for the Chinese.Within 24 hours of arriving I saw the aftermath of three major accidents.In the first two cars had collided at a crossroads.There was very little traffic around and they would have had to try hard to find another car to run into.And it was a big hit.In the second accident a car and a truck had collided and the truck had been forced off the road and one of its front wheels was hanging over a sharp drop.In the third a car was on its roof with a trail of debris marking its line of travel.The second and third accidents happened on a very winding mountain road where very slow, grossly overloaded trucks blowing out plumes of black smoke were wheezing uphill and drivers in faster vehicles totally ignored yellow lines and blind bends and just drove on the other side of the road pumping their horns as they passed them.It reminded me of driving in India,Vietnam and Turkey .Of course after getting away with these suicidal passes for a time they eventually meet a vehicle coming the other way which cannot or is unwilling to yield and the inevitable happens.
The second photo is of a truck in the main street in Yangshuo a small town in Yangshou County south of Guilin.This is a pretty typical sight.You see strange mobile set ups everywhere.I'm sure an Australian government heavy vehicle inspector would immediately apply for stress leave if confronted with a vehicle like this.And yes those are people in the back of the truck.No OH&S for them.








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