A traffic accident early Friday in Shaoguan City of Guangdong Province left 16 dead and 30 others injured, according to the local police.
The accident took place at 4:10 AM on No. 105 national highway. An overloaded coach bus with 50 passengers on board turned over into an eight-meter-deep ditch on the way from Jiangxi Province to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.
Thirteen people were killed on the scene, and three others died later in hospital. Fifteen of those injured are in critical condition, doctors said.
Preliminary investigation showed that the bus driver was not familiar with the road and the bus was over speed when the accident occurred, the police said.
Further investigation is still going on.
Also on Friday, eleven people were killed and 19 others were wounded in a traffic accident on the highway from Tianshui to Chankou, Gansu Province.
The accident took place at 12:50 AM, when a bus heading for the province's capital Lanzhou collided with a van.
Nine of the bus' 32 passengers were killed on the spot, and two others died in hospital. The 19 injured remain hospitalized.
Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, too.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2005)
