Twenty-one people died and 27 were injured in two separate bus accidents in China, local authorities said Wednesday. In Xuchang, central China's Henan Province, a coach crashed on an expressway Tuesday evening, killing 16 people and injuring 23 others, Xinhua quoted police as saying. The coach initially hit two cars that had already collided with each other. It then smashed through the expressway safety barrier, hurtled down a slope and overturned, said Xi Hongyu, deputy head of the traffic police unit in Xuchang. The bus had 42 people, including a driver and a conductor, aboard, Xi said. Four of the passengers died at the scene. Twelve died later in hospital. Six of the injured were seriously hurt. In the other accident, a bus overturned on a highway in Wuwei, northwestern Gansu Province, early Wednesday, killing five people and severely injuring four, a spokesman with the Gansu Provincial Work Safety Administration said. The bus was carrying 27 people when the accident happened, the spokesman said. Traffic authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, he added.
