photo: web

An unfortunate truck rollover accident in Shangcheng county, Central China's Henan Province, has killed eight people and injured 11 on Tuesday, according to an official statement on Wednesday.

A truck transporting gravel rolled over on Tuesday afternoon, crushing a crowd of people picking up garlic cloves on the roadside. Sadly, two people died at the scene, six people died after being rescued, and 11 people were injured but remain in a stable condition.

Just before the accident, a truck carrying garlic cloves had passed by on the same road on Tuesday morning and scattered a large amount of garlic cloves on the side of the road, leading to nearby residents rushing to the scene to pick them up and clean the road after hearing the news.

According to preliminary investigations a truck transporting garlic cloves rolled over at the junction of Henan and East China's Anhui Province due to unfamiliar road conditions at about 11 am on Tuesday.

The accident occurred without causing casualties, but some of the garlic cloves the truck was carrying were scattered onto the road and roadside ditch. The truck driver contacted a machinery rescue team, collected some of the scattered garlic cloves and left at around 2:20 pm.

Some villagers living nearby went to the scene after finding some garlic cloves were still on the road. More joined in to collect the garlic after hearing about it.

At about 4:25 pm a truck transporting gravel reached the same section of the road and rolled over, crushing some of the people picking up the garlic cloves.

According to family members of the deceased and local residents, some local villagers had volunteered to help the driver clean up the goods and the owner agreed to give the abandoned garlic cloves to the villagers as a reward.

Currently, this claim has not been officially confirmed.

An investigation team has been established to conduct a thorough probe into the accident and all efforts are being made to save the injured. The local authorities will carry out an investigation into potential safety hazards and will promote public safety awareness to prevent similar accidents.