TAIPEI, Taiwan – A tour bus carrying 35 Chinese nationals from Beijing overturned in Hualien County yesterday afternoon, leaving three passengers seriously injured and 28 with minor injuries, rescuers said.
Two of the three severely injured passengers were sent to Mennonite Christian Hospital, including a male passenger, surnamed Liu, who suffered a lumbar vertebral fracture and cervical sprain, the hospital said.
A female passenger, also surnamed Liu, was falling in and out of consciousness after the accident and has been hospitalized to see if she suffered a concussion, the hospital said. The other passenger, a woman surnamed Zhai, suffered four broken ribs and broke her spleen. Zhai and all of the passengers with minor injuries were sent to the Fengbin branch of the government-run Hualien Hospital.
The northbound bus, which, according to the Tourism Bureau, was manufactured in March 2010, overturned near the 62.8km marker on Provincial Highway 11 at about 4:20pm. A preliminary investigation found that the accident was probably caused by the driver’s inability to see clearly in the heavy rain, police said.
The Chinese tour group, which arrived in Taiwan on Thursday last week, was on its way to Hualien City after having lunch at a popular tourist destination near the -Shihtiping coastal terraces in Fengbin Township. The Tourism Bureau said the tour group was scheduled to return to China on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in Chiayi County, a tour bus carrying 16 Chinese tourists from Shandong Province sparked a three-vehicle collision that did not result in injuries.
The bus rammed into a car in front of it, sending the car crashing into another tour bus, which had another group of Chinese tourists from Fujian Province on board. Chiayi police said the two tour buses left the Alishan National Scenic Area around the same time and were being driven on mountainous Provincial Highway 18, also known as the Alishan Highway, when the accident occurred.
