Mon, April 23, 2012
NANJING/SHANGHAI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A bus taking Shanghai tourists to view peony blossom in a nearby city crashed with a truck head-on on the highway, leaving 13 people dead and 21 others injured, local officials said.
The accident occurred at 9:25 a.m. Sunday when the bus from Shanghai cut through the barriers and collided with a heavy truck coming in the opposite direction at a section of the Yanjiang Expressway in Changshu city, Jiangsu Province, traffic police of the city told reporters.
Both vehicles were overturned at the scene, they said. The injured, including four in critical condition, were being treated at Changshu hospital.
The 33 people on board the bus include 31 tourists, a driver, and a tour guide.
Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhao Wen had arrived in Changshu with a team of officials, tour agents and operators, and medics. The bus was rented from Shanghai Yiliu Car Rental Service Company, according to the tour agents.
Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.
Also on Sunday, another tourist bus carrying faculty members of a Nanjing-based polytechnic school overturned on a road in Tianzhu mountain resort in neighboring Anhui Province, injuring 35 people on board.
Traffic accidents on China's roads result in about 70,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries each year, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Speeding, fatigue, drunk-driving and poor road conditions are usually blamed.
