Bus toll 15 as fleeing driver held by police
By Xu Chi |
December 14, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
POLICE have detained a driver who fled after the school bus he was driving overturned into a ditch, killing at least 15 children.
Twelve died at the scene while three critically injured children died in hospital early yesterday.
Eight injured children are still being treated in hospital, local government said.
One of the injured is in a critical condition and two are in intensive care being treated for a buildup of fluid in their lungs. The others are recovering, local officials said.
The accident happened in the city of Xuzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province at 5:50pm on Monday when the bus suddenly overturned into a one-meter deep roadside ditch, with some students trapped and drowning in the freezing water. According to investigators, the driver was trying to avoid hitting a pedicab.
The bus, which had a capacity of 52, collected 46 students from a nearby elementary school and was taking them home. At the time of the accident there were 29 students on board, officials said.
Water flowed into the bus, drowning some pupils while suffocating others trapped at the bottom of the overturned vehicle, Sun Feng, a government official, said.
The driver, Hong Xu, who fled the scene, will take full responsibility for the accident according to a preliminary investigation, police said.
Chen Likun, deputy director of Fengxian County Public Security Bureau, said Hong owned the bus but didn't have a license to drive the vehicle. Chen said Hong usually hired a driver, but on Monday he was driving it himself.
The bus had been banned from operation in a recent crackdown against illegal and unlicensed school buses, Chen added.
Also on Monday, a school bus carrying 59 pupils was hit by a heavy truck in the city of Foshan in south China's Guangdong Province, injuring 37 students. Seven of the injured are still in hospital.
The two accidents happened just one day after a draft regulation on school bus safety was made public by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.
The draft was issued in response to public anger over poor management and lax supervision of school buses following a crash where a minivan packed with 62 children and two adults hit a truck head-on in China's northwestern Gansu Province, killing the adults and 19 of the children on November 16.
Local governments should take immediate action to make school buses more safe, China's safety watchdog said yesterday.
They should start to check school buses and correct problems with management now, rather than wait until relevant regulations are passed, Xinhua news agency quoted Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, as saying.
School buses should adhere to stricter standards and be of higher quality than average coaches, said Huang, who described the recent tragedies as "saddening."
Twelve died at the scene while three critically injured children died in hospital early yesterday.
Eight injured children are still being treated in hospital, local government said.
One of the injured is in a critical condition and two are in intensive care being treated for a buildup of fluid in their lungs. The others are recovering, local officials said.
The accident happened in the city of Xuzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province at 5:50pm on Monday when the bus suddenly overturned into a one-meter deep roadside ditch, with some students trapped and drowning in the freezing water. According to investigators, the driver was trying to avoid hitting a pedicab.
The bus, which had a capacity of 52, collected 46 students from a nearby elementary school and was taking them home. At the time of the accident there were 29 students on board, officials said.
Water flowed into the bus, drowning some pupils while suffocating others trapped at the bottom of the overturned vehicle, Sun Feng, a government official, said.
The driver, Hong Xu, who fled the scene, will take full responsibility for the accident according to a preliminary investigation, police said.
Chen Likun, deputy director of Fengxian County Public Security Bureau, said Hong owned the bus but didn't have a license to drive the vehicle. Chen said Hong usually hired a driver, but on Monday he was driving it himself.
The bus had been banned from operation in a recent crackdown against illegal and unlicensed school buses, Chen added.
Also on Monday, a school bus carrying 59 pupils was hit by a heavy truck in the city of Foshan in south China's Guangdong Province, injuring 37 students. Seven of the injured are still in hospital.
The two accidents happened just one day after a draft regulation on school bus safety was made public by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.
The draft was issued in response to public anger over poor management and lax supervision of school buses following a crash where a minivan packed with 62 children and two adults hit a truck head-on in China's northwestern Gansu Province, killing the adults and 19 of the children on November 16.
Local governments should take immediate action to make school buses more safe, China's safety watchdog said yesterday.
They should start to check school buses and correct problems with management now, rather than wait until relevant regulations are passed, Xinhua news agency quoted Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, as saying.
School buses should adhere to stricter standards and be of higher quality than average coaches, said Huang, who described the recent tragedies as "saddening."
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