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At Least 36 Killed, 13 Hurt in Bus Crash in China

by VOA News

   A bus crash in central China has killed at least 36 people and injured
   13 others in Shaanxi Province, authorities reported.

   The bus had left Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province Thursday night,
   and was headed for Luoyang city in Henan Province. Shortly before
   midnight, police said the long-distance bus hit a wall in the Qinling
   tunnel, part of the Xi'an-Hanzhong Expressway.

   Accounts of the accident by the official Xinhua news agency did not
   indicate whether any other vehicles were involved.

   Highway accidents are common in China because of high speeds and
   aggressive drivers. The World Health Organization estimates that
   traffic accidents kill about 260,000 people in mainland China each
   year, or 18.8 deaths for every 100,000 people.

   The toll from Thursday's road accident was nearly twice as high as
   casualties reported so far, 20 dead, from a powerful earthquake that
   rocked western China's Sichuan province two days earlier.