Three die in Bund Tunnel crash

Three people died Sunday morning after a BMW crashed into a wall of the Bund Tunnel in Huangpu district.

Around 5:15 am, a BMW M3 crashed near the tunnel's Wusongkou Road exit, throwing the car's three passengers from the vehicle, according to a witness.

"I saw a man screaming for help as I drove past the scene this morning," a man surnamed Xiong told the Global Times. "I couldn't stop in the middle of the tunnel to help because the car was burning so I dialed 110 to report the accident."

Two of the three passengers, a man and a woman, died at the scene of the crash, said Sun Guofu, press officer for the Shanghai traffic police. The second woman died at Shanghai No.1 People's Hospital around 9:30 am. The driver only suffered minor injuries.

Police tested the driver, surnamed Yu, for drugs and alcohol and found that he was sober, according to the Shanghai traffic police's microblog.

Paramedics at the scene told local media that all of the victims were between 20 and 25 years old.

Police closed the tunnel for more than an hour after the accident. Traffic returned to normal around 8 am after the car was towed from the scene.

Yang Xiaoguang, a road safety expert, told the Global Times that the Bund Tunnel is a hot spot for accidents. He warned drivers to stay below the speed limit while driving through it.

"The 3.8-kilometer Bund Tunnel is narrow due to the geography of the Bund and it has many sharp turns," said Yang, the director of the Shanghai-based Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Center at Tongji University. "Drivers often speed, exceeding the 50-kilometer-per-hour speed limit."

Police said the case remains under investigation.