Death toll rises to 21 in northwest China highway accident
2/12/2008 16:14
The death toll from a highway collision has risen to 21 in Kuqa, northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, today, said local sources.
Another
12 were injured, three were in serious conditions.
The accident happened
around 8:30 a.m. when a coal truck and a bus collided head-on while traveling on
National Highway 314.
A source with the Aksu Prefectural Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) confirmed 19 of the dead were from the bus. Two
others who died were from the truck, which belonged to the Third Transport
Company with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps..
The bus, with 34
reclining seats, left Artux in southwestern Xinjiang and was heading for
Urumqi,the regional capital,which is more than 1,000 km to the north.
Police
suspect fatigue might be the cause of the accident, as the weather was sunny.
They ruled out terrorism.
Traffic on the highway has been
stopped.
Xinjiang is the largest region in China in terms of landmass. Kuqa
sits on the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountain Range which divides Xinjiang
into two parts. There several fatal accidents in the region because of poor road
conditions.
The most recent major road accident happened in Akqi, a county
inside Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, western Xinjiang, on Aug. 12.
Twenty-five people were killed.
Xinhua
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