Tour bus falls off cliff in Tibet, killing 44 people

USPA News - A tour bus plunged off a 10-meter (32-foot) cliff in southwest China`s mountainous region of Tibet on Saturday, killing at least 44 people and injuring nearly a dozen more, state-run media reported Sunday, making it the country`s worst road accident so far this year. The accident happened at about 4:25 p.m. local time on Saturday when the tour bus collided head-on with a sports utility vehicle and a pick-up truck on National Highway No.

318 in Nyemo County of Tibet, causing the bus which carried dozens of tourists to plunge off a 10-meter (32-foot) cliff. Photos from the scene showed that the bus slammed into the ground while overturned, crushing the upper part of the vehicle up to where the passengers were seated. The state-run Xinhua news agency said the bus was carrying a total of 55 people, including passengers from the provinces of Anhui, Shandong, Hebei, and the city of Shanghai, among others. The sports utility vehicle was carrying four people while the pick-up truck had only one person on board. Police, fire fighters and medical staff rushed to the site of the crash, but the location of the accident - at the bottom of the cliff - hampered rescue efforts until heavy equipment was brought in. Rescue workers eventually recovered the bodies of 44 people while 11 others were injured and rushed to hospital, though none of them were in a life-threatening condition. Xinhua did not report any deaths or injuries among those traveling in the sports utility vehicle and pick-up truck, and it was not immediately known what had caused the crash. Roads in China are known to be among the most dangerous in the world with more than 70,000 fatalities and 300,000 injuries a year, according to the country`s Public Security Ministry. Many accidents are the result of drivers violating traffic laws, fatigue, poor road conditions and overloaded vehicles. Saturday`s accident marked China`s worst road accident so far this year, but it follows several accidents in which dozens of people were also killed. At least 43 people were killed on July 19 when a van carrying a flammable liquid collided with a passenger bus on a highway in central China, setting off a huge explosion which engulfed a number of vehicles.