A bus with 36 people on board collided with a taxi at about
11:40 PM on Saturday near Jiujiu Bridge in Huzhou Economic
Development Zone of the eastern province of Zhejiang
and killed 22, according to local police yesterday.
Police said the bus driver tried to avoid further damage by
turning the steering wheel abruptly, but the bus broke the bridge
guardrail and fell into the six-meter-deep river.
The remaining people aboard the bus were slightly injured, and
Wang Rendong, the bus driver, has been taken into custody.
The taxi was carrying four people when the accident occurred.
Its driver Zhu Weiyang and two passengers had minor injuries, and
the other passenger is safe and sound, the police said.
Roads swollen with tourist traffic have resulted in at least 10
major accidents, claiming at least five lives each, during the
weeklong National Day holiday, the Ministry of Public Security's
traffic management department said at the weekend.
At least 326 million trips were made by road during the holiday,
one of three "golden weeks" adopted in 1999 that regularly test the
nation's transport infrastructure.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily October 10, 2005)
