A motorist narrowly avoided a traffic accident on a Chinese motorway when the lane he was travelling in suddenly ended, despite street lines indicating a straight path ahead and no warnings saying otherwise.
The driver surnamed Li was reportedly travelling along a highway in Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong Province, on the afternoon of 1st October.
Dash-cam footage shows Li following the lines and painted arrows pointing straight ahead along the left-most lane.
Suddenly, the smooth ride comes to an abrupt end as the driver discovers the arrows lead straight into concrete barriers that angle across the lane to drive traffic into the slow lane – but with no warning at all:
Coupled with that, the sun was directly ahead making it difficult to see the construction. Fortunately, as he was immediately forced to swerve to the right, there was no traffic in the way and he avoided a collision.
Baffled Li later shared the video on social media to warn other motorists, saying that there were no prompts from the navigation system, no signs indicating the change, the dashed lines had turned solid, and there was a straight arrow.
He added that he almost did not notice the sudden change especially with the sun glaring in his face.
He added he had responded by instinct and visible skid marks on the asphalt suggest other drivers had narrowly avoided a similar risk as well.
Li later reported the incident to the local authorities, suggesting using the middle lane in three-lane roads to avoid the hazard.
