The entrance to the Changchun-Siping Expressway in Changchun in Northeast China's Jilin Province reopened after a truck accident caused a chemical spill, shutting it down for 26 hours.

The heavy-duty truck, which carried a tank of 20 tons of toxic liquid ammonia, turned over on the road at 6:30 am on Saturday, leading to the leakage of the poisonous chemicals.

The driver, surnamed Wang, died of injuries from the accident and his companion Sun Zhimin, who was seriously injured, is currently being treated in a local hospital.

Meanwhile, the chemical spill has raised concern about serious pollution of the local environment, according to Wang Fu, a local traffic policeman working at the accident scene.

"The leakage of the liquid ammonia resulted in a thick white fog in the air, and grass and trees for 2 square kilometres around the site have withered because of the toxic chemical," Wang said.

After the accident occurred, the Changchun local government immediately organized officials of local firefighting departments, traffic police and emergency workers as well as the environmental protection department to deal with the crisis. Fourteen fire trucks and over 100 firefighters were sent to the site.

After 12 hours of efforts, the puncture which measured 10 centimetres in diameter on the tank was stopped up and the crisis was completely contained.

The truck was allegedly from a chemical plant in Tonghua, another city in Jilin Province and the accident happened on the way to delivering goods to a local corn processing company.

Ammonia is a colourless poisonous gas, often used as the raw material in refrigeration and fertilizer industries.

The low-concentrated ammonia can make eyes water, and induce coughing and headaches.

(China Daily September 8, 2003)