Bus Plunges Into Valley In China, Killing 13

Bus Plunges Into Valley In Northern China, Killing 13, Injuring At Least 40

(AP)  BEIJING (AP) - A bus plunged into a valley along a mountainous road in China's northern Shanxi province, killing 13 people and injuring at least 40 others, local police and the country's official news agency said Saturday.

The bus with 54 passengers on board fell 164 feet (50 meters) into a valley in Yangquan city Friday afternoon and 10 passengers were killed immediately, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Three others died on the way to a hospital, and doctors were treating 41 injured passengers, it said.

Three of the injured were in critical condition and six others were seriously wounded, Xinhua said.

The bus was en route from Hebei province to Shanxi's capital, Taiyuan. It had been rented by a health-care products company in Taiyuan to ferry customers to Hebei as a reward for using its products, Xinhua said.

A Yangquan traffic police official confirmed the accident, but said 40 passengers had been hospitalized. The woman, who like many Chinese officials would give only her surname, Wang, said the cause of the accident was under investigation.

Zhang Yonghong, a Yangquan traffic police officer, told Xinhua that it was drizzling when the accident happened and that the road was slippery.

Bus crashes are common in China, and are frequently caused by drivers who are speeding or who are sleepy, or are driving overloaded, poorly maintained vehicles.