Gruesome accident on Taiyuan Lu and Jianguo Xi Lu

Shanghaiist woke up at 6 this morning to a terrible noise outside our building. Two buses (#205 and #45) had collided at the intersection and plowed into the building directly across the street from us. The Taiyuan and Jianguo intersection is very busy, with traffic going south towards the Xujiahui area and a wet market right on the corner. One of the buses must have ran a red light, resulting in the freak accident. Of course, a crowd quickly gathered around the front of the buses and the boyfriend guessed that there was someone (or some people) pinned by the buses, although we didn't want to believe it. The cops, then firemen, and then finally rescue workers arrived on the scene and it was a full half hour before tape was wrapped around the buses to prevent rubberneckers from disrupting the accident further. Only a few people were taken to the hospital (what looked to be one of the drivers and an elderly woman, who wasn't badly hurt).

One person wasn't so lucky. Shanghaiist's boyfriend guessed right, and pretty soon after rescue workers arrived, they pulled a body from between the bus and building. It didn't take long to see he was dead. The worse part is, after they put a sheet over the body, the cops pulled the tape down, and left the body to be gawked at by people passing by. One guy even went over and pulled the sheet up to take a look. It was only after what looked to be senior officers arrived that they yelled at the cops to put the tape back up so people from the morgue could inspect the body and look for ID.

After the tow trucks came to take the buses away, we saw that the deceased was driving a bike cart, which would explain why he couldn't get out of harm's way in time. Luckily, there are traffic cameras at this intersection and hopefully, they'll find out which driver ran the light and put him in jail for a long long time.

It's a very sad day for someone's family. And also a sad day for whoever lived in that building. Someone's home also got destroyed.

Picture of the scene of the accident right before the cops arrived.