20 die as kindergarten bus crashes into truck
By Xu Chi |
November 17, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
At least 18 pre-school children were killed when an overloaded kindergarten minibus collided head-on with a truck in northwest China's Gansu Province. The bus driver and a teacher also died in the crash.
Another 44 children were injured, 12 of them seriously.
The minibus was licensed to carry nine passengers but 62 children were crammed inside, Gansu Province Work Safety Bureau officials said.
A preliminary investigation found that the bus had been on the wrong side of the road and driving fast on a street shrouded in heavy fog when the accident happened, traffic police said.
The collision with the truck occurred at around 9:15am in Zhengning County of Qingyang City. The minibus was taking the children to a kindergarten after picking them up from remote farmlands.
Five people, including bus driver Yang Haijun and four children, died at the scene. The teacher and 14 children died later either on their way to hospital or while they were being treated for their injuries, Qingyang officials said.
Of the 44 children who survived, 12 sustained severe injuries with two of them in a critical condition, the province's health authorities said.
The truck driver and his passenger escaped injury but the driver has been detained by police and the province's work safety bureau has begun an investigation into what caused the accident.
The impact of the crash drove the front of the minibus back into the seats, ripped open the top and buckled the sides of the vehicle, while the front of the truck was slightly damaged. Xinhua news agency reported that the truck was loaded with coal, but Gou Shaobo, of Zhengning County traffic police told state broadcaster CCTV that it was used to transport stones and was empty at the time of the accident.
Gou said heavy fog had reduced visibility to below 50 meters.
Officials with the province's education bureau said the minibus belonged to the Xiaoboshi (Little Doctor) Kindergarten, a privately-owned facility authorized by the bureau.
But they didn't respond to questions as to why the kindergarten used such a small vehicle to transport so many children, or how it was possible to cram 62 children into a bus designed to carry just nine passengers.
A list provided by a Zhengning hospital showed that most of the victims were aged five and six.
"This accident says a lot about the problems with the local government's role of monitoring school safety," said Liu Shanying, a public administration expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"It involves the education, traffic safety and work safety authorities. They should all be blamed for this. They should all be held responsible.
"The kindergarten van was carrying seven times as many passengers as it should have been, which meant the kindergarten should have bought seven times as many vans," Liu told The Associated Press.
In March this year, a school bus designed to carry 49 passengers had 81 children and teachers on board when it hit the wall of a construction site, killing a child and an adult while injuring three other children.
In July, a school bus with seven seats but 15 preschoolers on board turned over in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, injuring four of them.
In September, an overloaded kindergarten minibus overturned in Shandong Province, injuring 20 preschoolers aged 3 to 6.
Another 44 children were injured, 12 of them seriously.
The minibus was licensed to carry nine passengers but 62 children were crammed inside, Gansu Province Work Safety Bureau officials said.
A preliminary investigation found that the bus had been on the wrong side of the road and driving fast on a street shrouded in heavy fog when the accident happened, traffic police said.
The collision with the truck occurred at around 9:15am in Zhengning County of Qingyang City. The minibus was taking the children to a kindergarten after picking them up from remote farmlands.
Five people, including bus driver Yang Haijun and four children, died at the scene. The teacher and 14 children died later either on their way to hospital or while they were being treated for their injuries, Qingyang officials said.
Of the 44 children who survived, 12 sustained severe injuries with two of them in a critical condition, the province's health authorities said.
The truck driver and his passenger escaped injury but the driver has been detained by police and the province's work safety bureau has begun an investigation into what caused the accident.
The impact of the crash drove the front of the minibus back into the seats, ripped open the top and buckled the sides of the vehicle, while the front of the truck was slightly damaged. Xinhua news agency reported that the truck was loaded with coal, but Gou Shaobo, of Zhengning County traffic police told state broadcaster CCTV that it was used to transport stones and was empty at the time of the accident.
Gou said heavy fog had reduced visibility to below 50 meters.
Officials with the province's education bureau said the minibus belonged to the Xiaoboshi (Little Doctor) Kindergarten, a privately-owned facility authorized by the bureau.
But they didn't respond to questions as to why the kindergarten used such a small vehicle to transport so many children, or how it was possible to cram 62 children into a bus designed to carry just nine passengers.
A list provided by a Zhengning hospital showed that most of the victims were aged five and six.
"This accident says a lot about the problems with the local government's role of monitoring school safety," said Liu Shanying, a public administration expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"It involves the education, traffic safety and work safety authorities. They should all be blamed for this. They should all be held responsible.
"The kindergarten van was carrying seven times as many passengers as it should have been, which meant the kindergarten should have bought seven times as many vans," Liu told The Associated Press.
In March this year, a school bus designed to carry 49 passengers had 81 children and teachers on board when it hit the wall of a construction site, killing a child and an adult while injuring three other children.
In July, a school bus with seven seats but 15 preschoolers on board turned over in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, injuring four of them.
In September, an overloaded kindergarten minibus overturned in Shandong Province, injuring 20 preschoolers aged 3 to 6.
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