Grateful China road collapse survivor makes 800km journey to thank elderly man who stopped cars from falling into abyss
- May Day mayhem sees 18-metre-long hole appear in motorway, 48 killed
- Hero elderly driver stands in road, stops vehicles, prevents further deaths
A man in China who was saved by an elderly man who risked his life to stop people from driving into a collapsed road has driven 800km to thank him.
In the early hours of May 1, an 18-metre-long section of motorway in a mountainous area of Guangdong, southern China, gave way, sending cars tumbling down a slope, leaving 48 people dead and 30 injured.
Huang Jiandu, 64, was a passenger in a vehicle that passed the section of road just before it collapsed.
After seeing the huge hole appear behind his car, Huang stopped and got out. He reached the other side of the pit, hoping to stop the following vehicles from driving on, reported state media CCTV.
Initially, Huang yelled at the oncoming traffic and asked drivers to stop, but he was ignored and cars dropped down into the abyss.
He then knelt down in the middle of the road, forcing a car to halt.
Cai Xuanda, a man in his 20s, was in the second car that was stopped by Huang. He said he was about 20 metres away from the hole and driving at a speed of 100km/h before he slammed on the brakes.
After Cai’s parents heard of the accident, they wanted to visit Huang to thank him for saving their son, according to the report.
“If Brother Huang had not got down on his knees, my son would not have stopped,” Cai’s father said.
On May 9, Cai, his parents and his sister went to Huang’s home in Shenzhen, driving from their hometown in Zhangzhou, southeastern Fujian province, which took an entire day.
Cai’s mother told him to bow “in earnest” towards Huang to show “thankfulness to Uncle Huang”.
They brought a bouquet of flowers and a tailor-made red silk banner on which was written Chinese characters which said: “You risked your own life to save my life, your kindness is as heavy as a mountain.”
The young man recalled that when he got out of the car, he saw a big dip in the road not far away with a number of cars on fire.
With the light from his mobile phone he saw that the slope was slippery and the ground was shaking.
Cai and another driver worked together to save four people, including a three-year-old child, trapped in their cars in the pit, and took them to the safety zone.
“As a retired PLA soldier and a person who was grateful to have been rescued, I saw it is my mission and responsibility to save others,” Cai said.
Huang, who shot to fame in China after his heroic deed was widely reported by the media, received many phone calls from strangers praising him.
“If you were put in that scenario, you would have done the same,” he told them, modestly downplaying his actions.
