Thirteen people were killed and three others injured after an overloaded passenger van rear-ended a semi-trailer truck on an expressway in central China's Henan Province in the early hours of Thursday, 29 May 2025, according to local authorities. The crash is the latest in a series of deadly accidents to strike China in quick succession.

How the Crash Unfolded

The collision occurred at approximately 2:40 a.m. on Thursday at an expressway section in Nanyang City, Henan Province. The vehicle involved was a nine-seat passenger van that was carrying 16 people at the time — nearly double its rated capacity — when it struck the rear of a stationary or slow-moving semi-trailer truck. The overloading is considered a key factor in the severity of casualties, according to reports.

Government Response

China's Ministry of Public Security has dispatched a dedicated work team to Nanyang to oversee the investigation and coordinate emergency response efforts. Authorities have not yet disclosed what action, if any, will be taken against those responsible for permitting the van to operate beyond its passenger limit.

A String of Tragedies Across China

The Henan highway disaster comes close on the heels of two other major incidents. In north China's Shanxi Province, a gas explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in Qinyuan County last week claimed 82 lives, with nine people still unaccounted for, according to the county's emergency management bureau. A total of 123 people were hospitalised, including two in critical condition and two in serious condition, while 33 others were discharged. The province deployed 755 personnel — including rescuers and medical staff — to the site, and those responsible for the mining company have been placed under legal control.

Earlier this month, on 4 May, a fireworks plant explosion at the Huasheng fireworks manufacturing and display company in Liuyang, a county-level city under Changsha in Hunan Province, killed approximately 24 people and injured 61 others. The blast occurred at around 4:43 p.m. More than 480 rescuers across five teams were mobilised, with three rescue robots deployed. Given the proximity of the explosion site to two black powder warehouses, authorities evacuated nearby residents and established a buffer zone to prevent a secondary blast.

Pattern of Industrial and Road Safety Failures

The three incidents — a highway crash, a coal mine explosion, and a fireworks factory blast — within weeks of each other have drawn attention to persistent safety enforcement gaps in China's transport and industrial sectors. Notably, overloading of passenger vehicles remains a chronic road safety problem in rural and semi-urban expressway corridors across the country. China's regulators have repeatedly tightened rules on vehicle capacity compliance, but enforcement at the ground level remains uneven, critics argue.