GUANGDONG authorities have launched an investigation into the collapse of a highway ramp, which fell under the weight of four overloaded trucks Friday. One person was killed and four others injured.

    The accident happened at 3:40 a.m. in Heyuan City. The vehicles, loaded with porcelain clay, plunged to the ground.

    The Guangdong provincial bureau of transport said yesterday that it has commissioned a third party to conduct the investigation in order to ensure impartiality.

    The highway, opened to traffic in December 2005, connects Guangdong with East China’s Jiangxi Province. The 130-meter one-way ramp leading up to the highway collapsed under the four trucks with an estimated total weight of 100 tons.

    “The weight surpassed the ramp’s maximum load, causing the rupture,” said Ao Daochao, chief engineer with the Guangdong Highway Co. Ltd., the parent company of the Guangdong Yuegan (Guangdong-Jiangxi) Highway Co. Ltd., which funded and operates the highway.

    Ao explained that the ramp was designed to carry a vehicle of up to 50 tons preceded and followed at a distance of no less than 10 meters by vehicles of up to 20 tons.

    He said the four trucks were being driven too close to each other.

    However, many have said the designers should have expected more congested traffic on the ramp, which is close to a toll station. Critics have also questioned how a ramp with a designed service life of 100 years could collapse so soon, even if overloaded.

    Another issue is the responsibility of the toll booth agents, who were supposed not to wave through vehicles with weights surpassing the ramps’ capacity.

    The Guangdong transport department has ordered tightened inspections of vehicle weights at toll booths.(Xinhua)