15 Killed As Truck Hits 31-Car Lineup In China

An out-of-control truck ploughed into a 31-car lineup in northwest China killing 15 people and injuring 44, authorities in the city of Lanzhou said Sunday.

The accident occurred Saturday night as the driver of the heavy duty articulated truck lost control on a downhill stretch of expressway and collided with cars lining up at a toll booth, Lanzhou’s propaganda department said.

Ten of the 44 hurt sustained serious injuries, authorities said.

The big rig driver Li Feng was put under investigation and police watch, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

The semi-trailer was registered to Li’s home northeastern Liaoning province, more than 2,000 kilometres from the scene of the accident. It was Li’s first time driving the stretch of road, the China Daily said.

State broadcaster CCTV aired video from the scene showing heavy snow and many crippled and twisted vehicles.

Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced.

Last week a scuffle between a bus driver and a passenger caused a bus to plunge from a bridge into a river in southwest China, killing all 15 people on board.

According to authorities, 58,000 people were killed in accidents across the country in 2015 alone.

Violations of traffic laws were blamed for nearly 90 per cent of accidents that caused deaths or injuries that year.

Source:

https://www.channelstv.com/2018/11/04/15-killed-as-truck-hits-31-car-lineup-in-china/

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Robots to make other robots in Chinese factory

Robotic arms manufactured by ABB Ltd. position steel sheets for stamping at the auto parts manufacturing plant operated by Gestamp Automocion SA plant in Duenas, Spain, on Monday, March 27, 2017. Gestamp expects to get approval to list company in early April. Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg

Robots will make robots at a new ABB factory in China, which the Swiss engineering group said on Saturday it plans to build for $150 million in Shanghai as it defends its place as the country’s largest maker of industrial robots.

The factory, located near ABB’s China robotics campus, is due to be operating by the end of 2020 and will produce robots for China as well as for export elsewhere in Asia. China is ABB’s No. 2 market after the United States.

“Shanghai has become a vital centre for advanced technology leadership – for ABB and the world,” ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a statement announcing the project.

With the expansion, ABB is banking on Chinese robots sales defying concerns over trade tensions with the United States that some fear could dent demand for electronics, auto parts and other items that require automated manufacturing and robots.

China is expanding its robot workforce, as wages for human workers there rise and the country seeks to compete with lower-cost countries via greater automation. In 2017, one of every three robots sold in the world went to China, which purchased nearly 138,000 units, ABB said.

ABB’s new 75,000-square-foot factory will use software meant to allow people and robots to work safely in close proximity, the company said, adding its YuMi robots — designed to work side-by-side with people — will also be deployed on many of the small parts assembly tasks needed to manufacture an ABB robot.

Rival Kuka, taken over in 2016 by China’s Midea two years ago, has also been expanding in the country, including by building a robot park in Shunde near Hong Kong.

ABB, whose industrial robots are used, among other things, to build automobiles as well as to assemble electronic devices, will build robots for numerous industries at the Shanghai factory, a spokesman said.

It did not give a new employee count for the factory but said it will boost robotics employment that now sits at more than 2,000 ABB workers in China.

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Horror As Woman Kills Herself And 2 Children After Husband Faked His Own Death (Photos)

    He, 3rd from left, faked his own death after falling into debt in China

A woman has killed herself and her two children in China after hearing about her husband’s death which eventually turned out to have been faked by the man.

The 34-year-old man in China, who was identified by the surname He, was presumed dead after his vehicle was discovered in a river on Sept. 19, the BBC reported.

The man’s body was not recovered as he had only faked his demise to get an insurance payout.

But he made a major misstep: He never told his wife about the plot.

So the 31-year-old woman, who believed she was a widow, grabbed her two children, ages 3 and 4, and jumped into a pond after posting a suicide note online.

The message said she was “coming to accompany” her husband in the afterlife, the BBC reported. The three bodies were found in a pond near their residence on Oct. 11.

The husband turned himself into Xinhua police Friday and was “detained on charges of insurance fraud and intentional damage to property,” police said in a statement.

He had purchased the insurance plan worth $110,000 in September, but his wife was unaware of the purchase, police said.

He allegedly had $14,435 worth of loans at the time of his “death.” In a video posted online, He said he borrowed the money for his daughter’s treatment for epilepsy.

According to the BBC, before turning himself in to the authorities, the man posted a video online in which he was crying and saying he had “borrowed” the money for her ill daughter.

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