62 people dead or missing due to the collapse of a bridge on a highway in Shaanxi, with 43 held accountable

Last year, a highway bridge collapsed in Shaanxi Province, causing 25 vehicles to fall into the river and resulting in 62 deaths and missing persons, with a direct economic loss of 157.5141 million yuan. On March 27, the Chinese Communist Party officially announced that 43 public officials involved in the case were held accountable, with two of them being arrested.

On the evening of July 19, 2024, at 8:49 pm, the No. II Bridge of Yanping Village in Danshui County on the Danning Highway from Zhashui to Shanyang in Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province collapsed during a flash flood. As the highway had been in operation for less than 6 years at the time, online public opinion in mainland China called for a thorough investigation and criticized it as a “shoddy construction project.”

After 8 months, on the afternoon of March 27, the Shaanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision announced that, following an investigation, the accident was not only caused by flash floods but also involved problems in construction management, design, construction, supervision, and river management. The 43 public officials from the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Transportation, Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources, Shangluo City Government, Zhashui County Government, and Shaanxi Transportation Holdings Group Co., Ltd. were held accountable.

Among them, 38 individuals received disciplinary actions by the Party and government, 3 were given warnings. Guo Pengcheng, the director of the engineering technical department of the project department where the collapsed bridge was located for the Third Engineering Company of China Communications Second General Bureau, and Lin Chaohu, the person in charge of third-party testing services for the foundation bridge and tunnel project of the Shuiyang Expressway by the Shaanxi Road and Bridge Road Engineering Testing and Inspection Co., Ltd., were suspected of committing crimes and were arrested by the public security organs.

Furthermore, Yang Fuqian, the former supervisor of Beijing Huahong Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. (a non-public official), was also arrested for suspected criminal activities.

Translation of the original published article: Epoch Times, March 28, 2025.