A Chinese truck driver has been praised in local media for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country’s mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.

China has sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures after a highway collapse killed at least 48 people in the country’s mountainous south. The official Xinhua News Agency on Friday said Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing had “stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work.

The death toll from a collapsed highway in southeastern China climbed to 48 on Thursday as searchers dug for a second day through a treacherous and mountainous area. One side of the four-lane highway in the city of Meizhou gave way about 2 a.