Chinese city’s anti-smog plan slips up: big freeze sparks 42 road accidents after watered roads turn to ice

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Police in the city of Fuyang received reports of 42 road traffic accidents caused by ice on the same morning last week after local government workers sprayed water on roads as temperatures fell below freezing. File photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 2:25pm, 18 Jan 2016Updated: 6:05pm, 8 Mar 2018

Chinese city officials slipped up over their efforts to cut down dust causing smog by spraying main roads with water in the middle of the night - only for ice to form when temperatures fell below freezing sparking 42 road traffic accidents in two and a half hours, mainland media reports.

Traffic police received reports of all the accidents between 6am and 8.30am when temperatures dropped to minus five degrees Celsius last Thursday in the centre of Fuyang city – one of the largest cities in Anhui province – Anhui Business Daily reported.

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Many motorists and cyclists, including one person who was injured in one of the road accidents, complained about ice that formed after water was sprayed on roads at the request of Fuyang city officials.

Ice formed on roads in Fuyang last week after environmental sanitation officials sent out water trucks to spray streets just as temperatures fell to minus five degrees Celsius. Photo: Anhui Business Daily

The newspaper report did not say if there had been any serious traffic accidents.

One driver lost control of his car and crashed into a fence, then slipped over as soon as he stepped out of his car to inspect the damage.

“There was a thin layer of ice on the road,” the driver told traffic police, according to the newspaper report.