By Zhou Ping

Local authorities promised to dispatch more traffic officers Wednesday to direct drivers as foggy conditions continue,after the weather Tuesday caused a 27-vehicle collision on Donghai Bridge – killing three people and injuring at least 15 others.

"The fatal mega-accident was essentially due to the poor visibility,"Lu Feng,a press officer for the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau,the body in charge of the city's traffic police,told the Global Times Tuesday.

But a senior official,from the Donghai Bridge traffic monitoring center,said that the drivers involved in the pile-up ignored the city's heavy fog alert that listed visibility at no more than 500 meters.

"At one point in the morning,visibility had even dropped to 100 meters,"the man,who declined to be named,told the Global Times yesterday. "Drivers were not supposed to be going more than 20 kilometers per hour along the bridge.”

"Too many drivers were ignoring the reduced speeds along the bridge and tailing too closely,"he added. "As a result,the accident ended up being much more serious than it should have been."

The accident yesterday occurred on the eastbound lane of the Donghai Bridge,which connects the city's Pudong New Area to neighboring Zhejiang Province,roughly 27 kilometers away from the Shanghai exit just before 7 am.

Six vehicles smashed into one another at the core of the collision,triggering another 21 vehicles to subsequently crash in behind,authorities reported Tuesday.

Three people died on impact. The 15 other injured were rushed to nearby Nanhui Central Hospital. Eight of the injured were released from hospital yesterday evening,while the others remained in serious condition,the most severe of whom suffered a brain injury.

A bus driver,who was carrying 20 people during the collision,told local media Tuesday that the accident happened in the blink of an eye.

"A container-truck suddenly changed lanes without signaling and we collided into it,"said the man surnamed Dong. "Part of the windshield got a bit smashed in,but luckily,none of us were harmed.”

Elsewhere around town yesterday,some 350 long-distance buses were canceled in the morning,while the fog also affected air and sea travel. Sixteen airplanes carrying some 2,600 passengers were forced to detour from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport and instead land at the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

As a safety precaution yesterday morning,12 of the city's 18 ferries shut down temporarily while 48 transport and passenger vessels were forced to reschedule their routes at the Yangshan Deep-Water Port.

According to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau,the fog conditions yesterday were the worst the city has seen since the Year of the Rabbit began on February 3.

The city's most recent foggy weather on Friday was less serious,and similar to the conditions expected today,Zhang Ruiyi,a senior officer from the bureau,told the Global Times Tuesday.

Li Mao and Zheng Sisi contributed to this story