Original title: Face to face丨Retrograde on the Meizhou-Dalian Expressway: Afraid but not regretful
html On May 9, Cai Xuanda’s family of four set out from Zhangzhou, Fujian, and drove for more than eight hours to Shenzhen to thank Huang Jiandu for his life-saving help.
Cai Xuanda’s father: If he hadn’t knelt down, my son would have fallen right away. When we heard about this, our whole family was horrified and we really didn’t know what to do.
Cai Xuanda’s mother: He really risked his life to save these people. Thank you very much.
Huang Jiandu: Look at this scene, if it were you, you would do it too.
Huang Jiandu is from Fengshun County, Meizhou City, and lives in Shenzhen with his wife. During this year's May Day holiday, the old couple plans to visit their in-laws in Dabu, Meizhou. After dinner on April 30, son-in-law Rao Zhen drove Huang Jiandu, his wife, his daughter's family of four, and his mother-in-law, a total of seven people, to Dabu County, Meizhou City.
When arriving at the Chayang section of the Meida Expressway, Rao Jin was driving in the slow lane. The other six people in the car were already asleep. Perhaps it was because he was in the slow lane that Rao Jin saw some abnormalities on the road.
Rao Zhen: When the headlights shone on me, I found that the road ahead was a black shadow in the slow lane, occupying both the slow lane and the emergency lane. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw no car, so I drove into the fast lane. The speed at that time should be 120 km/h.
Rao Jin: When I changed lanes to the fast lane, I also took a look and found that it was a pit. There is a slight collapse towards the fast lane.
The black shadow Rao Jin saw was the collapsing road surface. In retrospect, the car he drove was probably the last car to "leap" over the landslide, or in other words, the expanding landslide did not have time to swallow them.
Rao Zhen: When passing by, I heard a collision sound from the front wheel, and the car behind jumped up. I stepped on the brake once, and after I stepped on it, when I wanted to step on it a second time, the brake was out of control. Stop only when you slide into the slow lane and emergency lane.
The sudden abnormality and strong impact of the vehicle suddenly woke up all the family members sleeping in the car.
Huang Manqiu, Huang Jiandu’s daughter: After the car stopped, I was a little confused because my husband said there might be some potholes in the road behind. Unexpectedly, it was a landslide and the car was thrown up by the road. My mother-in-law said, let's go to the back and see if we can warn the cars coming from behind to avoid the pit and prevent them from losing control of their car or causing damage.
In response to her mother-in-law's suggestion, Huang Manqiu, her mother-in-law and her father Huang Jiandu took action together. Getting out of your car and walking on the highway in the dark is dangerous enough.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: Run forward, in the direction of the oncoming car. Because it was very dark and there was no light at all, we turned on the mobile phone light, turned on the flashlight, and then ran over there. We want the car to go on a better road, and not to be like us again, where the whole wheel of the car is damaged, and then we see cars falling one after another. The feeling is just two words, death. At first, because the fallen cars may have been in different positions and there was loose soil underneath, I felt it was a very muted sound. Later, there were more and more vehicles, and the sound of iron pressing against iron was different.
At this time, the landslide quickly evolved from an initial gap of 70 to 80 centimeters into a huge deep pit, and the area of road damage continued to expand. According to later statistics from relevant local departments, the length of the collapsed road was 17.9 meters, and the total collapsed area of the road and the mountain below the roadbed was approximately 184.3 square meters.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: I didn’t see the edge of the pit at first, but then slowly there was a fire underneath, and with a little light, I could see the edge of the pit. It was less than a hundred meters away from us. When I was close to the edge of the pit, I walked over slowly because I didn't know where it suddenly collapsed.
In the darkness, the family turned on the flashlights of all their mobile phones, stood on this side of the collapsed pit, waved their hands and shouted towards the opposite side of the pit, trying to warn the approaching vehicles. However, one car, two cars, three cars, the collapse of the pit swallowed up one car after another in front of their eyes.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: At that time, I saw seven or eight cars falling. They are scattered all over the place, some are turned over and some are lying sideways. 122 at 2:01.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: Looking back now, people below shouted to me for help, but there was nothing I could do. I was wondering if I could have gone down into the pit. If I had rescued them, the number of deaths might have been less. I regretted not going down into the pit, but my ability was really limited. Because the pit is very deep.
There were constant cries for help in the deep pit, and thick smoke began to rise from the burning vehicle. The family who narrowly escaped the danger kept waving their mobile phones and calling for help, but it seemed to have no effect.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: At first there was no smoke and we couldn’t see the cars over there. One by one they fell, maybe ten or more, when my father couldn’t help it anymore, he felt that he You must go against traffic and go over there to stop the car.
At this time, the landslide had swallowed up all the lanes of the expressway on Huang Manqiu's side. If you want to intercept the vehicle on the opposite side of the big pit, you can only climb over the isolation belt, enter the other side, go in reverse direction around the collapsed pit, and then climb over the isolation belt.
Huang Jiandu, 64 years old, is from Fengshun, Meizhou, Guangdong. He used to be a farmer and also did some small businesses. Now I live in Shenzhen with my wife. My main daily tasks are to take my grandchildren to school and buy food and cook for them.
Huang Jiandu: I felt very sad and watched the car fall. Usually during the May Day holiday, there are several people in one car, and some are family members. Thinking of this, I can't help it, I really can't help it. I saw so many cars falling and dying. Don’t think about it. I can’t control myself when I think about it. I just want to be able to tell the cars on the opposite side to stop. This is my only hope.
Huang Jiandu’s daughter Huang Manqiu: I said, Dad, come back quickly. Don’t go, ask him to come back. He ignored it, he might have heard it and he wouldn't have come back.
Huang Jiandu: Because I hadn’t passed the middle guardrail yet, when I got to the front of the lane where the accident occurred, I saw two cars falling down. I originally wanted to go ahead, which is safer, but I had no choice but to see a car coming from ahead.
After climbing over the isolation zone twice, Huang Jiandu finally stood on the side of the collapsed pit closer to the oncoming car. He knew that blocking a car on the highway was dangerous, and he also knew that if he stopped a car a little further away from the big hole, the danger would be relatively less. However, seeing another car speeding towards him, he could only act faster.
Huang Jiandu: Holding a mobile phone in one hand, "Stop, stop", I just said stop. Maybe the car found someone in front of it.
Reporter: How far away did you kneel?
Huang Jiandu: It’s about twenty meters.
Reporter: How far away from you was he when he stopped?
Huang Jiandu: A few meters away, I suddenly braked and stopped.
Reporter: After the driver braked suddenly, he ran over to you. You should have gotten up, right?
Huang Jiandu: I got up when the car stopped. "You don't want your life," he said. I said that your family is alive, I don't care, you go to the front and take a look, not far away, he saw the landslide and many cars, came back and said: "Thank you for saving my family's life."
The driver who was stopped was a man in his thirties or forties, and there were a total of five people in the car. The car stopped, providing a more visible warning to the cars behind it.When Huang Jiandu was driving against the traffic to stop the car, his daughter Huang Manqiu had been communicating with 120 and 122 in various ways. In the meantime, some wounded climbed out of the pit onto the road.
Huang Manqiu’s son and daughter, one in the first grade and the other in the second grade, took the initiative to help take care of the injured baby.
On the opposite side of the collapsed pit, rescue efforts are also underway. One of the protagonists of this rescue is Cai Xuanda, born in the 2000s. He is 23 years old and is an e-commerce online salesman. He set off from Guangzhou on the evening of April 30 and wanted to return to Zhangzhou, Fujian Province to celebrate his father's birthday. He stopped immediately after the first car stopped by Huang Jiandu.
Cai Xuanda: When I was still nearly fifty or sixty meters away from the landslide section, I turned on my high beams and could see that Mr. Huang was stopping me over there, and I felt very anxious. When I got off, my hands and feet began to tremble. My instinct must have been to go and save them, because I didn’t think too much at the time, nor did I want to run away or anything like that. I just heard them calling for help, so I went to save them.
The large pit that collapsed was dark, slippery and steep. Cai Xuanda and another retired soldier Liu Yongjin cooperated with each other and began to rescue the injured at the bottom of the pit. Among them, the rescue of a little boy about ten years old was the most difficult.
Cai Xuanda: In fact, his hands and feet were seriously injured. When I started to hug him, he said that his legs were extremely painful because I hugged his legs. Then I tried to carry him, and my hands touched his waist again, as if there was a big wound. Then I used my back to lift his hands. No more effort.
Cai Xuanda: At that time, I was with my brother Liu Yongjin, and he was waiting for me in the middle of the slope. I went down to the bottom of the slope first, and then I supported the little boy and supported him, and then I climbed on top of him.
Some people stayed to save others, while others turned around and left. But behind Cai Xuanda and Liu Yongjin, another post-90s generation stood up. Wang Xiangnan from Puyang, Henan, is a truck driver and a retired soldier. In the early morning of May 1, he and his wife were driving a refrigerated truck loaded with grapes to Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The vehicle that turned around and was traveling in the opposite direction alerted them to something unusual ahead.
Wang Xiangnan: I saw several cars in a row, and they were coming in the opposite direction. I quickly stopped there and asked about the situation. He said there was a landslide, that the bridge was broken, and that many cars fell down. He immediately turned the car sideways, turned the steering wheel to the right, and didn't think much else. There weren't many cars in front of me, maybe two in front.
Without thinking too much, Wang Xiangnan built a solid safety barrier for subsequent vehicles. His refrigerated truck was 12 meters long and lay 200 meters away from the landslide. At that time, many vehicles approaching from behind saw Wang Xiangnan's car, and their first reaction was to honk their horns to signal him to move the car. Wang Xiangnan and his wife explained to them one by one. After these car owners learned the reason, they also joined the team to explain the situation to the cars coming from behind.
Wang Xiangnan: I didn’t think about anything at the time. What I thought later was that if there was an accident, it would definitely be my responsibility.
At around three o'clock in the morning on May 1, more than a dozen fire trucks and other rescue forces rushed to the scene. Wang Xiangnan turned the car around, adjusted the route, and drove back to his delivery destination.
After rescuing four people one after another, Cai Xuanda also changed out of his clothes that were stained with mud and blood, and drove away into the night.
reporter: Will you support your son going?
Cai Xuanda’s mother: Because as a parent, if you can raise your son to be this big, every parent doesn’t want it if possible. But when he saw people shouting for help, he would definitely go to help and ask him to help. He said that he was very scared when he got out of the car. People were trying to save people, so he rushed down immediately and didn’t care about it. He said Every one can be saved.
html On May 10, the Meizhou City, Guangdong Province’s Brave Action Assessment Committee issued the “Announcement on Confirming the Brave Action of Five People including Huang Manqiu, Huang Jiandu, Wang Xiangnan, Liu Yongjin, and Cai Xuanda.” In response to the landslide disaster in the Chayang section of the Mei-Da Expressway, the Guangdong Provincial Government has established a disaster investigation and assessment team headed by the provincial governor. The cause of the disaster is currently under investigation and assessment.Source: CCTV News Client
