A major snowstorm struck Northern California over the weekend, described as the season’s largest, with more snow expected. As a result, interstate highways on March 4 remained closed.
Amid this, a video showing cars trapped in heavy snow with passengers inside is widely shared on social media. Captions accompanying these images question why anyone would attempt to travel in such dangerous conditions.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: “Massive blizzard snowstorm hits in Northern California’s Donner Pass in Lake Tahoe! Buried! Why would you try to travel in this?”
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be FALSE.
Running the video keyframes through Reverse Image Search, our team identified a Twitter post shared on January 19, 2023, featuring similar visuals. According to the post, the image is of an avalanche in Linzhi to Pai, China, dated January 17, 2023, which caused an accident at the exit of the Duoxiongla Tunnel, resulting in eight fatalities.
A Chinese news report, dated January 19, 2023, has published several additional images from the incident. Locals call the area where the accident occurred ‘Ghost Gate’ due to numerous avalanches over the years that have resulted in casualties.
Global Times, China’s state-owned news outlet, had also reported similar incidents on January 20, 2023. A total of 28 people were killed after being trapped in the snow in China’s Xizang (Tibet) region.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that a video from China is falsely linked to a blizzard in North California.
