As early as 2012, a similar accident happened in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, which was caused by overload.

Zhu said that even double-pier bridges will face risks of overload, too – their concrete and reinforced steel bars will be constantly damaged by overload, which, if accumulated in the long run, may cause the whole bridge to collapse, said Zhu.

In order to prevent this, high-level bridges have sensors on them to monitor inner stress and possible deformation, while ordinary bridges require regular checks and maintenance.

Some have called for raising standards in bridge construction so that they can better cope with overloaded trucks.

Yet Zhu said that domestic bridges already have certain redundancy rates when being constructed, which gives them the ability to cope with overloads within a certain range.

To raise the standards means investing more resources, all of which comes from taxpayers' pockets.