18 killed, 14 injured in China bus-truck highway collision

BEIJING – Eighteen people were killed and 14 others injured in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a truck on a highway in central China, police said Saturday.

The accident took place Friday evening in Hunan province south of Beijing. Video from the scene showed both heavily damaged vehicles along the rain-slicked highway. It appeared that one of the vehicles may have crossed a centre divider.

Speeding, dangerous passing, poorly maintained vehicles and fatigued drivers are most often the cause of serious traffic accidents in China. Friday’s accident appeared to be one of the worst in recent months.

Despite vast improvements in safety, the World Health Organization says about 260,000 Chinese die each year in traffic accidents, many of them pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcycle riders. Long-distance buses are a cheaper alternative to high-speed trains or planes for the vast majority of working-class Chinese travelling around the vast country.