Two people were killed on a Beijing road as a result of an argument between a couple that spiraled into a major traffic crisis.

After they got into a quarrel on the Fourth Ring Road one night last September, they kept on shouting at one another and the woman pelted the man's mobile phone on the street.

The man tried to retrieve the phone when he was struck by a minibus and killed.

The accident created gridlock and then a careless truck driver slammed into another vehicle causing a seven-vehicle pileup. Four vehicles were on fire and one driver died.

The truck driver, Wu Yanping, was prosecuted and the minibus driver responsible for the first man's death is also under investigation.

(China Daily April 23, 2009)