BEIJING - A string of deadly road accidents has left five dead and dozens injured in China since Monday, local authorities said Tuesday.

A pile-up involving a container truck, a car and a van on an expressway in Ningbo, a port city in East China's Zhejiang province, killed the driver of the car and injured four people in the van at around 4 am Tuesday.

The truck driver, surnamed Tian, said he had directed his vehicle into the wrong lane while trying to avoid hitting a stray tire on the road, and ended up colliding with the incoming car head-on.

The driver of the van, who was driving three friends from Shanghai to Shenzhen, did not brake in time and crashed into the container truck.

It was the second deadly expressway accident to occur in Zhejiang province within six hours.

At around 10 pm Monday, a bus carrying 48 people overturned on a pivotal expressway linking the provincial capital Hangzhou with Nanjing in neighboring Jiangsu province, killing a female passenger and landing 17 in hospital.

Some survivors said the bus crashed into the guardrail while trying to avoid being hit by a truck that suddenly veered in front of the bus.

The third of the accidents, a truck-van collision, happened around midnight on a highway in Liuzhou county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, killing three and injuring one.

Local authorities are still investigating these accidents.