School bus accident in China kills 15

December 14, 2011|New York Times

BEIJING - A school bus ferrying students home from a primary school in rural China rolled into an irrigation canal, killing 15 children and injuring eight others, officials said.

The accident Monday evening in Jiangsu province has revived public indignation over school bus safety and, more broadly, complaints about inadequate government spending on education.

Less than a month ago a coal truck in the northwestern province of Gansu slammed into an overloaded minivan that was being used as a school bus, killing 21 kindergartners and two adults. The loss of life, and the anger, were compounded by the nine-seat vehicle being crammed with 64 people.

At the time, many ordinary Chinese and a number of media outlets accused the government of miserly spending on school transportation while directing enormous sums toward the purchase of new cars for bureaucrats.

In the crash Monday, the driver lost control of the bus after he swerved to avoid a pedicab, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. The vehicle had a capacity of 52 but reportedly had only 29 students on board when it rolled upside down into a canal with less than two feet of water.

“Students became trapped at the bottom of the overturned bus and drowned as water gushed into the wreck,’’ Zhang Bin, an official in Fengxian County, told Xinhua.

The News Agency said the bus driver was detained for questioning.

The accident occurred one day after the State Council, China’s Cabinet, issued proposed regulations on school bus safety. After the accident in Gansu last month, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao promised to address the problem of substandard school transportation.