Woman dies in bus collision

By Dong Zhen  |   2008-10-31  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A BUS carrying more than 30 elderly Zhejiang Province villagers collided with a BMW sedan on the A4 Expressway in Fengxian District yesterday morning, leaving one dead and several elderly passengers injured.

The Fengxian District police told Shanghai Daily that the bus slammed into the rear of the sedan, lost control and overturned at 10:17am. The dead passenger was a woman in her 70s.

Police said two bus passengers were critically injured and 32 others were taken to Fengxian District Central Hospital with bone fractures, cuts and bruises. The two seriously injured passengers were suffering chest trauma and multiple bone fractures.

Police said the people in the car, a man, a woman and an eight-year-old girl, were all from India. They were taken to No. 6 People's Hospital for examination and found to be unharmed, though they were kept in hospital for observation.

Doctors said the Indian girl can speak fluent Chinese.

"She is gradually recovering from the initial panic," a doctor told Shanghai Daily. "She's in fine condition and could communicate with us clearly and calmly."

The bus was taking tourists from Qishan Village in Zhejiang Province to the Bund in Shanghai for a budget sightseeing tour, according to the victims, who were aged between 50 and 70. The small village is near Taizhou City in Zhejiang.

"The budget tour also includes a lunch and attracted us," said a 54-year-old woman, surnamed Xiang, who was slightly injured.

"I sat near the front row and saw everything. When the bus lost control after the collision and overturned, I thought it was all over and we were all dead."

Police said it took the rescue team more than an hour to cut the passengers out of the crushed bus.