One hundred four Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims were on their way
home from Lhasa on Monday when the truck they were riding in
overturned in northwest China's Qinghai
Province. Fifty-four were killed, including four children, and
31 others remain hospitalized.
The accident, which took place around noon, is attributed to
overloading, faulty brakes and driver error according to an
official surnamed Wang, of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
government.
The driver, who escaped with slight injuries, had an invalid
driver's license, Wang said.
The 104 passengers were sitting or standing in the open flatbed
of the truck when the vehicle flipped over.
The victims have not yet all been identified, but they are known
to be from the Ganzi and Aba Tibetan autonomous prefectures in
southwest China's Sichuan
Province.
"Many rural people rent trucks like this to go on pilgrimages
because it's cheaper than renting a bus," Wang said.
Fifty passengers died immediately when the truck turned over on
a highway near Kuola Mountain. Four others died in or en route to
the hospital.
Another 31 are being treated at the local Renmin Hospital, with
nine reportedly in serious condition.
The accident is the worst Yushu has seen in recent years, said a
local prefectural official surnamed Xie, adding that the pilgrims
would not normally have used this particular highway to go home.
There was speculation that they had made a detour to a different
monastery.
"Relatives of the 54 dead in 11 Sichuan counties have been
reached," Xie said.
Zhao Leji, the provincial Communist Party secretary, has ordered
the prefectural government to deal properly with the aftermath.
On Tuesday, another major accident occurred in Benxi, northeast
China's Liaoning
Province, when a bus carrying 15 people collided with a
locomotive. Six people were killed instantly and the rest were
injured.
The crash took place at about 1:35 PM. Preliminary investigation
indicates that the bus driver's violation of traffic laws led to
the tragedy.
Accidents on China's roads killed 96,870 people in the first 11
months of 2004, according to the Ministry of Public Security, and
435,740 were injured in the nation's 470,019 traffic mishaps.
Officials have blamed the high
number of accidents and fatalities on inexperienced drivers,
disregard for safety, and unsafe or overloaded vehicles.
(China.org.cn, China Daily January 5, 2005)
