TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A 10-car collision occurred on Monday morning (March 20) as thousands of Blackpink fans headed back north after flocking south for the K-pop supergroup's concert in Kaohsiung on Sunday evening (March 19).
The K-pop girl band held its second sold-out concert of the weekend on Sunday at Kaohsiung National Stadium, which has a capacity of 55,000. On Monday, the Freeway Bureau said at 1:15 a.m., a pileup involving 10 vehicles, including one bus, one semi-trailer truck, three large trucks, and five small passenger vehicles occurred at the 204.3-kilometer mark of the Changhua northbound section of National Highway No. 1, causing traffic to back up for one kilometer.
The multiple collisions caused serious damage to many vehicles and the section of highway from the Changhua northbound Puyan System Interchange to the Changhua Combat Readiness Runway was almost completely blocked. Six men and one woman were injured in the pile-up, but none lost consciousness.
Gridlock on National Highway No. 1 in Changhua at 3:34 a.m. on Monday. (tw.live/national-highway screenshot)
A motorist surnamed Yang (楊) told ETtoday that after the Blackpink concert, they started to drive north to Taichung after having a meal. Yang said northbound traffic on National Highway No. 1 had been brought to a standstill from around 1:20 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Monday.
Yang said drivers were forced to turn off their engines. As of 5 a.m., all the injured had been evacuated from the scene and debris had been cleared from the highway.
The Freeway Bureau said the accident was handled by the National Highway Bureau. It sent officers to the scene to conduct traffic control and divert the traffic flow. Due to the large scale of the accident, the bureau said that there may continue to be traffic delays in the area on Monday morning.
Scene of accident on Monday morning. (Facebook, Breaking News Commune photo)
An eyewitness said on the Facebook group "Breaking News Commune" that a car had flipped over and although vehicles traveling behind it began to brake, the driver of a large vehicle was unable to react in time, causing it to hit the overturned vehicle, leading to a chain reaction of subsequent collisions.
The accident occurred at 1:15 a.m. and the scene was largely cleared by 4:58 a.m.
