The crashed bus lies overturned on the site where a serious accident occured and killed 35 onboard. (Internet photo)
Most of the passengers onboard a crashed bus in which 35 were killed were students from Hebei Province's Tangshan University, police said yesterday. They were on their way back to school on the last day of the weeklong National Day holiday, police added.
Twenty others were injured, including six in a serious condition, in the accident that occurred on Friday in Tianjin Municipality. The driver of the bus is still unconscious, according to police.
The identities of 34 of the 35 deceased and the 20 injured have been confirmed, officers added.
The bus, which belongs to Tangshan Traffic and Transportation Group, has a maximum capacity of 53 people. However, 55 people were onboard when the accident occurred.
After colliding with a car, the bus rolled over and slid 208 meters, with its right side rubbing against roadside crash barriers. The barriers cut into the vehicle, killing and injuring several of its passengers, Xie Jinrong, a Tianjin Public Security Bureau traffic administration official, said yesterday.
The inside of the crashed bus
Victims said the bus picked up students at Hebei University in Baoding and was taking them to Tangshan University.
"The bus was not organized by the school. We call the numbers printed on on-campus advertisements when we want to take a bus," said Duan Yingjie, a female student who was injured in the accident.
"Many students take the buses because they're very convenient," Duan added.
Tianjin's crash was the deadliest of three major road accidents that occurred on the last day of the holiday. Traffic is often high on the last day, as many people are traveling after visiting their families or taking vacations.
A total of 21 people were killed in the other two major accidents, one in Henan Province and the other in Anhui Province.
Yesterday, five people were killed and seven others injured after eight trucks crashed on a foggy highway in Zhejiang Province, local authorities said.
The accident happened at around 6am at the Shaoxing section of the G60 highway, firefighters said. An initial probe found that a lack of visibility due to the fog was the main cause of the accident.
