Province bans overnight buses after crash
By Xu Chi |
August 28, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALL the red-eye bus trips in Shaanxi Province will be banned starting next week after a deadly bus accident claimed 36 lives and injured three early Sunday, the provincial governor said yesterday.
At the same time, all buses traveling from nearby provinces to Shaanxi late at night will be forced to pull off the highway for the driver to rest for safety concerns, said the governor, Zhao Zhengyong.
The announcement was made after a crash at 2:18am on Sunday in which a fully-loaded double-decker sleeper coach rammed into the back of a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol, triggering a fire that engulfed both vehicles and left 36 people on the bus dead, including the driver.
The transport company in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region yesterday published the names of 20 victims. The names, published by Hohhot Municipal Transport Group, the owner of the bus, indicates 12 victims were from the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Henan, as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Three survivors severely burned in the accident are being treated at a hospital.
The bus driver who died, Chen Qiang, a man in his 40s, is now suspected of driving dangerously fatigued. The bus station of the double-decker coach told China Central Television yesterday that they had received warning from a GPS device on the coach.
An official with the bus station showed a video of the drivers taking shifts driving the coach, according to CCTV. About 2am, the station got the warning saying that Chen was driving while overly tired.
One survivor, Wei Xuemei, said the bus driver saved her by pushing her out of the bus window before it was devoured by flames. Wei said someone broke the bus window for her but she wasn't able to climb out until the driver pushed her out.
In the past 17 months, over 140 people have died in double-decker sleeper coaches in six accidents. Companies were ordered to stop manufacturing or selling sleeper bus products starting in March of this year.
At the same time, all buses traveling from nearby provinces to Shaanxi late at night will be forced to pull off the highway for the driver to rest for safety concerns, said the governor, Zhao Zhengyong.
The announcement was made after a crash at 2:18am on Sunday in which a fully-loaded double-decker sleeper coach rammed into the back of a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol, triggering a fire that engulfed both vehicles and left 36 people on the bus dead, including the driver.
The transport company in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region yesterday published the names of 20 victims. The names, published by Hohhot Municipal Transport Group, the owner of the bus, indicates 12 victims were from the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Henan, as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Three survivors severely burned in the accident are being treated at a hospital.
The bus driver who died, Chen Qiang, a man in his 40s, is now suspected of driving dangerously fatigued. The bus station of the double-decker coach told China Central Television yesterday that they had received warning from a GPS device on the coach.
An official with the bus station showed a video of the drivers taking shifts driving the coach, according to CCTV. About 2am, the station got the warning saying that Chen was driving while overly tired.
One survivor, Wei Xuemei, said the bus driver saved her by pushing her out of the bus window before it was devoured by flames. Wei said someone broke the bus window for her but she wasn't able to climb out until the driver pushed her out.
In the past 17 months, over 140 people have died in double-decker sleeper coaches in six accidents. Companies were ordered to stop manufacturing or selling sleeper bus products starting in March of this year.
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