School bus overturns in eastern China, killing 12 students

[News_Editor]

School bus overturns in eastern China, killing 12 students

2011-12-13 04:16:25 GMT+7 (ICT)

NANJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Twelve Chinese children were killed on late Monday afternoon when a school bus overturned in the eastern part of the country, officials said. Eleven others were injured.

The accident happened at around 5.40 p.m. local time when the school bus overturned and fell into a ditch in the township of Shouxian in Fengxian county, which is located in China's eastern province of Jiangsu near the city of Xuzhou.

County officials told the state-run Xinhua news agency that the driver of the school bus, which belonged to a primary school in Shouxian township, is believed to have lost control while trying to avoid a pedicab, although the exact cause of the accident is still being investigated.

Officials said twelve children were killed while eleven others were injured, including three students who are in a serious condition. The large school bus was initially carrying 47 students when it left the school, but only 29 students were still on board when the accident happened.

Roads in China are known to be among the most dangerous in the world with more than 70,000 fatalities in 2009 alone. Many accidents are the result of drivers violating traffic laws, bad road conditions and overloaded vehicles.

Less than a month ago, 19 children and two adults were killed when a minibus carrying preschoolers from a kindergarten collided head-on with a truck carrying coal in northwestern China. The minibus was carrying 64 people even though it was designed for only nine people.

But the deadliest accident so far this year happened on July 22 when an overcrowded double-decker bus caught fire on a highway in the city of Xinyang in Henan Province, killing 41 people and injuring the only six survivors.

And on October 7, a total of 35 people were killed and 20 others were injured when a passenger bus overturned on an expressway in Tianjin, a metropolis located in northern China, after colliding with a car.

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