Bus, truck collision in central China kills 24

Bus, truck collision in central China kills 24

2012-04-12 23:57:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

WANGZHAI TOWNSHIP, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Twenty-four people were killed on early Thursday morning when a sand-hauling truck collided head-on with a passenger bus in central China, the government said. Two people survived the crash.

The accident happened at around 6:30 a.m. local time when the truck collided with the bus on a road near Wangzhai township in Xiaoxian county, which is located in the central province of Anhui. The powerful impact completely smashed the fronts of both vehicles.

A spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety said 23 people died at the scene of the accident while another person died at a local hospital, raising the total death toll to 24. Two passengers on board the bus survived the accident and were rushed to a local hospital, but their conditions were not immediately known.

Police told the state-run Xinhua news agency that the truck may have been overloaded and speeding. "Drivers of long-haul trucks are particularly prone to speeding or overloading to generate maximum profits," a local traffic police officer told Xinhua. "Accidents usually occur at night or at dawn when traffic policemen are rotating duty."

Roads in China are known to be among the most dangerous in the world with more than 70,000 fatalities and 300,000 injured a year, according to the country's Public Security Ministry. Many accidents are the result of drivers violating traffic laws, fatigue, poor road conditions and overloaded vehicles.

On late Monday afternoon, three young children were killed when a kindergarten school bus slammed into a truck in Yangchun, a city located in Guangdong province of southern China. Fourteen other people were hospitalized, including seven people who were seriously injured.

And last month, fifteen people were killed when a passenger bus plunged into a 100-meter (328-feet) deep ravine near the Zhegu Mountain in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, located in Sichuan province. Six people survived the accident and were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-04-12