A 45-year-old woman died recently after walking off a 20-meter bridge onto a river bank in the Jiangjing district of Chongqing, apparently because she was distracted by the text messages on her cell phone. more ›

Li Guanyi, a 29-year-old Shanghai resident, was hit and killed by a motorcycle while crossing the road in the Taiwanese city of Hualien (花莲) at 10pm on Tuesday. Li was attempting to cross the road to reach his hotel when the accident occurred. Despite efforts at resuscitation, Li was declared midnight before reaching a hospital. The apparent cause of death was initially determined to be intracranial bleeding, though investigations are still ongoing. more ›

A kindergarten school bus collided with a truck in Puyang, Henan province this afternoon. All 10 children and 2 adults were saved and only suffered from slight injuries. more ›

The AP is reporting that at least 17 preschoolers and two adults were killed this morning at approximately 9:40am, when their overcrowded minibus crashed with a truck in a township located in the city of Qingyang (庆阳) in Western China's Gansu province. more ›

Here's yet another tragic reincarnation of the Yueyue story all over again. A 5 year old boy named Longlong (龙龙) passed away from critical injuries in Linyi, Shandong Province after passersby ignored his mother's plea for help to rush him to the hospital. more ›

Subway trains in Nanjing were delayed along line 2 yesterday, and reports coming out today state that recent heavy rains had a role, by flooding water channels and elevating the underground bed lining which subway track lays on. In a video from one of the stranded trains, passengers mill about annoyed and anxious at the delay, only to then run away in screaming terror when things start going wrong for the train car. more ›

Is industrial safety standard reform going to happen anytime soon? Fires and other accidents certainly occur often enough: "At least 14 people were killed when a fire ripped through a dormitory building belonging to a ceramics factory in south China early Tuesday, the local government said. The blaze engulfed the building belonging to the Shengfeng Ceramics Factory in Foshan city, a manufacturing centre in China's southern Guangdong province, the local government said in a statement on its website. The fire took three hours to extinguish, leaving 14 people dead and two others seriously wounded, the statement said, without identifying the victims. According to the People's Daily website, two people were killed when they leapt from the windows of the building. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, the People's Daily report said." [AFP]. more ›

At least 35 43 people were killed and over 210 injured in a horrific high-speed rail collision in Wenzhou, Zhejiang at about 8:30pm last night. The accident happened when one train, D3115, lost power after being struck by lightening, and then was rear-ended by another train, D301. A total of six carriages were derailed, two falling from the viaduct. more ›

(Warning: gallery contains graphic imagery) 41 passengers perished in a bus fire that occurred outside of Xinyang city (信阳) in Henan province at approximately 4am today. 47 passengers were on board an overcrowded double-decker overnight bus designed to seat 35, with the six survivors all having suffered burns to various degrees. At least one survivor is in a critical condition at a nearby hospital. more ›

You'd think that after the Dalian oil spill last year, the government would be better prepared to deal with an oil spill. Nope! They're even copying American techniques on avoiding responsibility. more ›

• China says 35 killed in blast at coal mine [latimes.com] "Chinese officials says a blast in a coal mine has killed 35 in central Henan province and left 44 other miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the predawn explosion today happened at a pit in Pingdingshan city. A statement on the administration's website did not give a cause for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. Ninety-three men were working underground at the time of the blast, it said."
• China enters list of lower-middle-income countries: NBS [China Daily] "China's economic aggregate ranked third in the world as of 2008, pulling it into the list of lower-middle-income countries from low-income ones, according to a Sept 7 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The report, featuring the nation's 60-year development since 1949 when new China was founded, also said China has gradually become a large manufacturing country as it strengthened industrial infrastructure construction and expanded productivity."
• Taiwan premier quits over typhoon [BBC NEWS] "Taiwan's premier Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned, after the government was heavily criticised for its slow response to last month's typhoon. Mr Liu will be replaced by the ruling party's secretary general, Wu Den-yih. Mr Liu told reporters that someone had to take political responsibility for the fact that at least 600 people had died as a result of Typhoon Morakot."

Last night at around 9:30pm, a No. 3 line bus lost control on the Yangpu Bridge and swerved into the opposite lane, colliding with cars and causing a 12 vehicle pile-up. Roughly 14 people were injured. Three were killed by the accident - the bus driver died on the spot and two others, a bus passenger and a driver of a taxi the bus crashed into - died of injuries after being sent to the hospital. Police are currently investigating the cause of the accident. Source: Xinmin and Xinhua more ›

A bus burst into flames on an off ramp in Chengdu earlier this morning. The fire has claimed 24 lives and injured 42 people. Its cause has yet to be determined and is currently under investigation. Head to GoChengdoo for more information. more ›

An anonymous driver slammed into the Adidas store on Huaihai Middle Road and Ruijin No.1 Road earlier this morning. Shop employees discovered an abandoned motor vehicle lying by the side of the store when they shuffled in at 7am. Thankfully, since the shop was not yet open, nobody was hurt, and while a side column and a billboard suffered some damage, none of the goods inside the store were broken or stolen. The driver, who sneakered off sometime after the accident, was no where to be found. What a heel. Source: Xinmin more ›

Shanghai police were able to recover the body of the mechanic who had been missing since a helicopter serving China's Antarctic exploration ship, Xuelong (雪龙）, fell to the sea. Fishermen discovered remains with ID belonging to 56-year-old Yang Yongchang off the muddy banks of Changxing Island. Final confirmation, done through a DNA match, is still needed. The helicopter was carrying four men when it crashed into the ocean off of Shanghai only one minute after taking off from Snow Dragon. The three other passengers suffered minor injuries. Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

Rescuers have managed to recover the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in the East China Sea off Shanghai. The copter had served China's Antarctic exploration ship, Xuelong (雪龙）, and was carrying four men when it crashed near the Yangtze River on Sunday mid-morning. Three men were rescued and rushed to the hospital. One of the men is in serious condition, but the other two are stable. The search for the fourth man - a mechanic - is still ongoing. While the exact cause of the crash has yet to be determined, authorities say thick fog was probably the culprit. Source: Xinhua more ›

According to Shanghai Daily, seven workers were buried when a construction site in Jiangsu Province collapsed earlier today. The accident took place this morning in Lucheng Township, Danyang City. The workers were helping to build the new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which is supposed to accommodate bullet trains that can travel up to 350kmph and cut the travel time between China's two mega-cities to roughly five hours. more ›

Dai Longquan, a 19-year-old man from Jiangxi Province is currently recuperating at Renji Hospital after having a 28cm drill bit removed from his brain by surgeons. He was adjusting the drill when a tiny little accident happened — the bit shot into his right eye socket and was embedded 18 centimetres into his brain. By the time Dai was rushed to the hospital, he was already in a critical condition and was lapsing into a coma. Doctors made two small openings on each side of his brain and not only removed the bit (three centimetres of which had been bent into a right angle), but also saved his eye. more ›

11 passengers were killed when a bus carrying a total of 34 passenger came off the road on Shaoshan Mountain. We were surprised to learn from this report that last year, roads in China claimed more lives than any other country with over 81,000 fatalities. We are however unsure where China stands on a per capita basis.[Source] more ›

The Chinese media reports the tragic story of Liu Yan (刘岩) who only ten days before the opening ceremony missed a step and fell three metres down the platform during rehearsals for the opening ceremony. The dancer from Inner Mongolia was rushed to hospital where she endured a 6 hour surgery however when she regained consciousness had lost movement and feeling to the lower half of her body. The article reports how her parents rushed from Hohhot to be with their daughter. The multiple-award winning dancer was supposed to have been on stage for only two minutes, but her tragic mis-step spelt the premature end to a promising career. more ›

For those of you that found that video of that Guangzhou train station stampede too gruesome to watch, then please, DO NOT click on this video (h/t to Global Voices). The clip contains images of dead bodies, and in fact it's so gory we're surprised that it hasn't been removed from Youku yet. more ›