2011-11-18
Chinese authorities order safety checks for school buses following a deadly accident.
Police investigate a school bus crash in Gansu province, Nov. 16, 2011.
Beijing has issued new safety rules governing school buses after a kindergarten bus crash in the western province of Gansu killed at least 21 children, official media said on Friday.
Wednesday's accident took place in Gansu's Zhengning county after a kindergarten minibus packed with 64 people, mostly on unsecured benches in the back, collided head-on with a coal truck.
The crash also left the driver and a teacher dead, and injured 11 children severely and 32 less seriously. Initial reports said 18 children had died.
"The children are still receiving urgent treatment," said an official surnamed Zhang at the Yulinzi township government in Zhengning county.
"The parents are all waiting at the hospital, and all our local leaders have gone there too," she said.
A parent of one of the injured children surnamed Wei said that 13 children were being treated for their injuries in the Zhengning County Hospital on Thursday.
Wei, whose five-year-old son was transferred to nearby Qingyang City Hospital with multiple abdominal injuries, said a number of other children had also been transferred there.
"One is still in a critical condition [in Zhengning], while 18 others were sent to Qingyang City Hospital," Wei said. "A few of those were in a fairly serious condition."
"They are still in the intensive care room," he said, adding that several of the children had head injuries.
Safety checks ordered
The education ministry has ordered education authorities and schools and kindergartens across the country to carry out safety checks on buses.
"(Buses) that have potential safety risks must immediately be taken off the road and repaired," the ministry said in a statement.
"Vehicles that cannot meet safety requirements are strictly banned from getting onto the road," it said.
According to Wei, the children were thrown together in the collision because they were sitting on loose benches with no safety belts.
"All the seats were thrown around inside the bus, after they were all thrown to the front of the vehicle," he said. "The children were all thrown together and severely crushed ... which is why there were so many deaths and injuries."
He said the authorities have promised the children's parents that the hospital will put all the resources it has into their care, and that the government will foot the medical bill.
"The authorities have sent a lot of people to be with ... the families of the 18 who died," he added.
Repeated calls to the Qingyang City Hospital went unanswered on Thursday.
However, an employee who answered the phone at the Zhengning County Hospital said some of the children were already recovering rapidly.
"They are still in the hospital, but their condition is already improving," he said of the 13 children who remained there. "If you want to know any more, you had better call the propaganda department."
Calls to the propaganda department went unanswered on Thursday.
Students rely on buses
Lan Yun, a psychology professor at Texas Tech University, said many of the children in such remote regions of the country rely on bus transport to get any kind of education.
"The schools are willing to lay on transport because without it many of the kids wouldn't be able to attend school," Lan said.
"It would be a shame if such a positive development were to be stopped because of this incident," he said. "Someone has to take responsibility for this, whether it's the school or the government."
Earlier this week, Zhengning authorities detained Li Jungang, chairman of the Little Doctor Kindergarten in connection with the crash, along with Fan Jungang, the driver of a coal truck, official media reported.
Two deputy county chiefs and the heads of the county's education bureau and traffic department have been suspended from duty following the accident, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It quoted parents of students at the kindergarten as saying that school bus overloading has been a problem for years, despite repeated complaints.
Officials said the school bus had its seats removed to make room for more passengers and was speeding in adverse weather conditions.
Qingyang municipal education chief Lu Huadong appeared to lay the blame firmly at the school's door.
"Merely three days before the accident, we discovered overloading of kindergarten school buses and ordered rectification, but the operators just ignored our request for the sake of profit," Lu told reporters.
Many migrant workers in poverty-stricken rural areas rely on private kindergartens as child care while they work in big cities, often thousands of miles away.
Reported by Yang Jiadai for RFA's Mandarin service and by Fung Yat-yiu for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Wednesday's accident took place in Gansu's Zhengning county after a kindergarten minibus packed with 64 people, mostly on unsecured benches in the back, collided head-on with a coal truck.
The crash also left the driver and a teacher dead, and injured 11 children severely and 32 less seriously. Initial reports said 18 children had died.
"The children are still receiving urgent treatment," said an official surnamed Zhang at the Yulinzi township government in Zhengning county.
"The parents are all waiting at the hospital, and all our local leaders have gone there too," she said.
A parent of one of the injured children surnamed Wei said that 13 children were being treated for their injuries in the Zhengning County Hospital on Thursday.
Wei, whose five-year-old son was transferred to nearby Qingyang City Hospital with multiple abdominal injuries, said a number of other children had also been transferred there.
"One is still in a critical condition [in Zhengning], while 18 others were sent to Qingyang City Hospital," Wei said. "A few of those were in a fairly serious condition."
"They are still in the intensive care room," he said, adding that several of the children had head injuries.
Safety checks ordered
The education ministry has ordered education authorities and schools and kindergartens across the country to carry out safety checks on buses.
"(Buses) that have potential safety risks must immediately be taken off the road and repaired," the ministry said in a statement.
"Vehicles that cannot meet safety requirements are strictly banned from getting onto the road," it said.
According to Wei, the children were thrown together in the collision because they were sitting on loose benches with no safety belts.
"All the seats were thrown around inside the bus, after they were all thrown to the front of the vehicle," he said. "The children were all thrown together and severely crushed ... which is why there were so many deaths and injuries."
He said the authorities have promised the children's parents that the hospital will put all the resources it has into their care, and that the government will foot the medical bill.
"The authorities have sent a lot of people to be with ... the families of the 18 who died," he added.
Repeated calls to the Qingyang City Hospital went unanswered on Thursday.
However, an employee who answered the phone at the Zhengning County Hospital said some of the children were already recovering rapidly.
"They are still in the hospital, but their condition is already improving," he said of the 13 children who remained there. "If you want to know any more, you had better call the propaganda department."
Calls to the propaganda department went unanswered on Thursday.
Students rely on buses
Lan Yun, a psychology professor at Texas Tech University, said many of the children in such remote regions of the country rely on bus transport to get any kind of education.
"The schools are willing to lay on transport because without it many of the kids wouldn't be able to attend school," Lan said.
"It would be a shame if such a positive development were to be stopped because of this incident," he said. "Someone has to take responsibility for this, whether it's the school or the government."
Earlier this week, Zhengning authorities detained Li Jungang, chairman of the Little Doctor Kindergarten in connection with the crash, along with Fan Jungang, the driver of a coal truck, official media reported.
Two deputy county chiefs and the heads of the county's education bureau and traffic department have been suspended from duty following the accident, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It quoted parents of students at the kindergarten as saying that school bus overloading has been a problem for years, despite repeated complaints.
Officials said the school bus had its seats removed to make room for more passengers and was speeding in adverse weather conditions.
Qingyang municipal education chief Lu Huadong appeared to lay the blame firmly at the school's door.
"Merely three days before the accident, we discovered overloading of kindergarten school buses and ordered rectification, but the operators just ignored our request for the sake of profit," Lu told reporters.
Many migrant workers in poverty-stricken rural areas rely on private kindergartens as child care while they work in big cities, often thousands of miles away.
Reported by Yang Jiadai for RFA's Mandarin service and by Fung Yat-yiu for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
No comments:
Post a Comment