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July 22, 2016

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Bus crash relatives in tears as they mourn their loved ones

Source: AFP | July 22, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

DISTRAUGHT relatives of the 24 Chinese mainland tourists who died when fire ripped through their bus in Taiwan broke down in tears yesterday as they arrived on the island to identify their loved ones.

The mainland tour group was just a few kilometers from Taipei’s Taoyuan airport to catch a flight home on Tuesday when their bus was engulfed in flames and careered into an expressway barrier. All 26 people on board were killed, including the Taiwan driver and guide.

Investigators say the fire started at the front of the bus, near the driver’s seat but there are questions over why none of the passengers was able to escape through emergency exits.

One female relative collapsed in tears and pounded a table in front of gold-framed portraits of the dead — including three children — at a funeral parlor near the airport, where the bodies are being kept. Two other women sank to their knees in front of victims’ pictures.

They were among dozens of relatives who arrived at the parlour as Buddhist volunteers chanted outside.

The family members bowed three times in front of the portraits and laid white flowers in front of them.

They then returned to their hotel where they were due to meet Taiwan officials in the evening.

Officials from the Chinese mainland have urged Taiwan to take measures to ensure the safety of visitors to the island. The demand came following a number of fatal accidents in recent years.

Liu Kezhi, secretary-general of the mainland’s Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits, expressed “strong dissatisfaction” over the accident. “I hope Taiwan will take real measures and put high importance on the safety of mainland tourists, so that similar issues will not happen again,” Liu said after paying his respects to the dead.

Taiwan’s top official Lin Chuan was also among those who paid their respects at the parlor yesterday.

Relatives are to have DNA samples taken to help with identification, the Travel Agent Association, which is coordinating their stay, said.

They will only be able to see the bodies of their family members after DNA results have been processed, which will take a day, the association said.

The group from China’s northeastern city of Dalian had been on an eight-day trip around the island’s popular tourist spots.

A highway police officer and a truck driver tried to save the trapped tourists, and pictures showed them attempting to smash windows with fire extinguishers.

One witness said passengers inside the bus had been pounding on windows as the bus swerved off the highway.

A postmortem examination carried out on the driver’s badly burnt body revealed he had inhaled a large amount of smoke, prosecutors said.

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