On May 9, Cai Xuanda and his family of four set out from Zhangzhou, Fujian, drove for more than eight hours, and arrived in Shenzhen to thank the elderly Huang Jiandu for saving their lives.

On May 1, people enjoying the five-day May Day holiday were shocked by a disaster. At around two in the morning, in Dabu County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, the Chayang section of the Meida Expressway suffered a road surface collapse. In the darkness, speeding vehicles kept falling into the deep pit caused by the collapse. At the critical moment, the elderly Huang Jiandu climbed over the median barrier and went against traffic to the opposite side of the pit, where he knelt down to stop cars, halting the further spread of the disaster. Among them, Cai Xuanda was the second car stopped by Huang Jiandu.

Cai Xuanda's father: If he hadn't knelt down, my son would definitely have fallen in right away. Hearing about this, our whole family was terrified; we truly did not know what to do.

Cai Xuanda's mother: He really risked his life to save these people. We are truly very grateful.

Huang Jiandu: Looking at that scene, if it were you, you would do it too.

Huang Jiandu is from Fengshun County, Meizhou City, and usually lives in Shenzhen with his wife. During this year's May Day holiday, the couple planned to visit their son's father-in-law in Dabu, Meizhou. After dinner on April 30, with their son-in-law Rao Zhen driving, Huang Jiandu and his wife, their daughter's family of four, and the son's mother-in-law—seven people in total—set off for Dabu County, Meizhou City.

When they reached the Chayang section of the Meida Expressway, Rao Zhen was driving in the slow lane, and the other six people in the car were all asleep. Perhaps precisely because he was in the slow lane, Rao Zhen noticed some abnormal conditions on the road surface.

Rao Zhen: When the high beams shone ahead, I found that the slow lane section ahead was a black shadow, covering the entire slow lane and the emergency lane. I checked the rearview mirror, saw no cars, and moved the car into the fast lane. At that time the speed should have been 120 km/h.

Rao Zhen: When I changed to the fast lane, I also took a look and found it was a pit. There was a slight collapse toward the fast lane.

The black shadow Rao Zhen saw was the collapsing road surface. Looking back afterward, the car he was driving should have been the last vehicle to "leap over" the collapse—or rather, the expanding collapse did not have time to swallow them.

Rao Zhen: As we passed, the front wheels heard an impact sound, and the rear of the car jumped up. I stepped on the brake once, and after pressing it down, when I tried to step on it a second time, the brake was already out of control. It only stopped after sliding into the slow lane and emergency lane.

The car's sudden abnormality and violent impact instantly woke all the sleeping family members in the vehicle.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: After the car stopped, I was a bit dazed, because my husband said there might be some pits in the road behind, but I never expected it to be a collapse; the car was thrown up by the road. My mother-in-law said, let's go back and take a look, to see if we can warn the cars coming from behind, so they can avoid the pit and not lose control or suffer losses.

Responding to her mother-in-law's suggestion, Huang Manqiu, her mother-in-law, and her father Huang Jiandu began to act. Getting out and walking on a dark expressway was already dangerous enough.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: We ran forward, toward the direction of oncoming traffic. Because it was very dark, with not a bit of light, we turned on our phone lights and flashlights, and then ran that way. We wanted the cars to go on the good road, not to be like us, with all the wheels damaged. Later we saw one car after another falling down. It felt like just two words: death. At first, because the cars that fell were perhaps in different positions, with loose soil below, it sounded like a dull noise. Later, as there were more and more vehicles, it was the sound of iron pressing on iron—a different sound.

At this point, the collapse had rapidly evolved from an initial gap of seventy or eighty centimeters into a huge deep pit, and the area of damaged road surface was still continuing to expand. According to later statistics from the relevant local departments, the collapsed road surface was 17.9 meters long, and the total collapse area, including the road surface and the mountain body beneath the roadbed, was about 184.3 square meters.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: At first we could not see the edge of the pit. Later, as fire gradually started below, there was a little light, and then we saw the edge of the pit. It was less than a hundred meters from us. When I approached the edge of the pit, I walked slowly, because I did not know where it might suddenly collapse.

In the darkness, the family turned on the flashlights of all their phones, stood on their side of the huge collapse pit, and waved and shouted toward the opposite side, trying to warn the oncoming vehicles. But one car, two cars, three cars—the huge collapse pit swallowed one vehicle after another before their eyes.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: At that time we saw seven or eight vehicles fall down. They were scattered in disorder; some had overturned, some were on their sides. I called 122 at 2:01.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: Looking back now, the people below were shouting to me for help, but I was powerless. I was thinking, if I had been able to go down into the pit at that time, if I had gone to save them, would the death toll perhaps have been a little lower? I feel quite regretful that I did not go down into the pit, but my ability was truly limited, because the pit was very deep.

Cries for help kept coming from the deep pit, and the burning vehicles began to send up thick smoke. The family, who had narrowly escaped danger, kept waving their phones and shouting to stop the cars, but it seemed to have no effect.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: At first, when there was no thick smoke, we waved, but the cars over there could not see us, and one after another fell down. When about ten or more had fallen, my father could not hold back any longer; he felt he had to go against traffic to the other side to stop the cars.

By this time, the collapse had already swallowed all the lanes on Huang Manqiu's side of the expressway. To get to the opposite side of the pit to intercept vehicles, one could only climb over the median barrier, enter the other side, go against traffic around the collapsed pit, and then climb over the median barrier again.

Huang Jiandu, 64, is from Fengshun, Meizhou, Guangdong. He once farmed and also did some small business. Now he lives in Shenzhen with his wife; his main daily tasks are taking his grandchildren to and from school and buying groceries and cooking for them.

Huang Jiandu: I felt terrible inside, watching the cars fall with my own eyes. Usually during the May Day holiday, several people are in one car, and some are whole families. Thinking of this, I could not hold back—truly could not hold back. Seeing so many cars fall and people die—do not bring this up again; once I recall it, I cannot control myself. I just wanted to be able to make the cars on the opposite side stop; this was my only hope.

Huang Jiandu's daughter Huang Manqiu: I said, Dad, come back quickly, do not go. I called him back. He ignored me; even if he heard, he would not come back.

Huang Jiandu: Because I had not yet crossed the central barrier, when I reached the front of the lane where the accident happened, I saw two cars fall down. I had originally wanted to walk a bit farther ahead, where it was safer, but there was no way—I saw a car coming ahead.

After climbing over the median barrier twice, Huang Jiandu finally stood on the side of the collapse pit closer to the oncoming traffic. He knew that stopping cars on the expressway was dangerous, and he also knew that standing a little farther from the pit to stop cars would be relatively less dangerous. But seeing another car speeding toward him, he could only act faster.

Huang Jiandu: I held a phone in one hand, saying "Stop, stop," just like that, stop. Perhaps that car noticed someone ahead.

Reporter: How far away were you when you knelt?

Huang Jiandu: About twenty-some meters.

Reporter: How far from you was it when he stopped?

Huang Jiandu: A few meters. He braked hard and stopped.

Reporter: After this driver braked hard, he ran over to find you. You should have gotten up by then, right?

Huang Jiandu: Once the car stopped, I got up. "Do you not want to live?" he said. I said, your family's lives are safe; I do not mind about myself. Go take a look ahead yourself, just a short distance ahead. He saw the collapse and the many cars, came back, and said: "Thank you for saving my family's lives."

The driver who was stopped was a man in his thirties or forties, and there were five people in the car. The stopping of this car provided a more obvious warning to the cars behind. While Huang Jiandu was going against traffic to stop cars, his daughter Huang Manqiu was constantly communicating with 120 and 122. During this time, some injured people climbed out of the deep pit onto the road surface.

Huang Manqiu's son and daughter, one in first grade and one in the second year of junior high, took the initiative to help care for this injured baby.

On the opposite side of the collapse pit, rescue operations were also unfolding. One of the main figures in this rescue was Cai Xuanda, born in the 2000s. He is 23 and works in e-commerce online sales. On the night of April 30, he set out from Guangzhou, wanting to return to Zhangzhou, Fujian, to celebrate his father's birthday. He stopped right behind the first car that Huang Jiandu had stopped.

Cai Xuanda: When I was still nearly fifty or sixty meters from the collapsed section, I had my high beams on and could see Mr. Huang there stopping me; he looked very anxious. After I got out of the car, my hands and feet started trembling. My instinct was certainly to go down and rescue, because at that time I did not think that much, nor did I think about running away quickly or anything like that; I just heard them calling for help and went down to save people.

The huge collapse pit was dark, slippery, and steep. Cai Xuanda and another retired soldier, Liu Yongjin, worked together and began rescuing the injured at the bottom of the collapse pit. Among them, the rescue of a boy of about ten years old was the most difficult.

Cai Xuanda: His hands and feet were actually injured very seriously. At first I wanted to carry him in my arms, but he said his legs hurt terribly because I had touched his legs. Then I tried to carry him on my shoulder, but my hand touched his waist, and it seemed there was a very large wound. Then I carried him on my back, but he could not use his hands to hold on.

Cai Xuanda: At that time, Brother Liu Yongjin and I were together. He waited for me midway up the slope first, and I went down to the bottom of the slope first. Then I supported the little boy and passed him up to Liu Yongjin, and then I climbed up above him.

Some stayed to save people, and some turned around and left, but behind Cai Xuanda and Liu Yongjin, another person born in the 1990s stepped forward. Wang Xiangnan from Puyang, Henan, is a truck driver and also a retired soldier. In the early hours of May 1, he and his wife were driving a refrigerated truck full of grapes to Quanzhou, Fujian, when vehicles turning around and going against traffic alerted them that there was something abnormal ahead.

Wang Xiangnan: I saw several small cars in a row; they came against traffic. I quickly stopped behind them and asked about the situation. They said there had been a collapse, the bridge had broken, and many cars had fallen. I immediately turned the truck sideways and turned the steering wheel to the right; I did not think much else. I could see there were not many cars in front of me, maybe two.

Wang Xiangnan's action, done without much thought, built a solid safety barrier for the vehicles that came later. His refrigerated truck was 12 meters long and stood across the road 200 meters from the collapse. At that time, many vehicles coming from behind saw Wang Xiangnan's truck, and their first reaction was to honk to signal him to move it. Wang Xiangnan and his wife explained the situation to them one by one. After learning the reason, these drivers also joined the team explaining the situation to vehicles coming from behind.

Wang Xiangnan: At that time I was not thinking about anything. Later I thought, if there really were an accident, then I would certainly bear the responsibility myself.

At around three in the morning on May 1, more than a dozen fire trucks and other rescue forces arrived at the scene one after another. Wang Xiangnan turned his truck around, adjusted his route, and set off again toward his delivery destination.

After rescuing four people in succession, Cai Xuanda also changed out of his clothes covered in mud and blood and drove off, disappearing into the night.

Reporter: Would you support your son in going?

Cai Xuanda's mother: As parents, if a son has been raised this big, if possible, no parent would want that. But seeing people shouting for help, of course one would also go to help. I told him to go help and rescue. He said that when he first got out of the car he was also very afraid, but when he saw others saving people, he immediately rushed down, not caring about so much anymore. He said, save as many as you can.

On May 10, the Meizhou City Courageous Act Evaluation Committee of Guangdong Province issued the "Public Notice on Confirming the Courageous Acts of Huang Manqiu, Huang Jiandu, Wang Xiangnan, Liu Yongjin, Cai Xuanda, and Two Others." Regarding the collapse disaster on the Chayang section of the Meida Expressway, the Guangdong Provincial Government has established a disaster investigation and evaluation team headed by the governor. The cause of the disaster is currently under investigation and evaluation.