On 7 July 2020, a local bus in

Anshun Anshun () is a prefecture-level city located in southwestern Guizhou province, southwest China, near the Huangguoshu Waterfall, the tallest in China. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 2,297,339. The city proper had a population o ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; Postal romanization, formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in the Southwest China, southwest region of the China, People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the pr ...

, in

southwest China Southwest China () is a region in the south of the People's Republic of China. Geography Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and ...

, made a sharp turn and crashed into the Hongshan Reservoir in

Xixiu District Xixiu District () is a district in the prefecture-level city of Anshun, Guizhou Province, China. The district spans an area of 1,705 square kilometres, and has a population of 765,399 people as of the 2010 Chinese Census. Geography The district ...

. At least 21 people died and 16 others were injured. Among the passengers on the bus were candidates for the

Gaokao The National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), commonly known as the gaokao (), is a standardized college entrance exam held annually in mainland China. It is required for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the und ...

examination.

Crash

Video footage of the accident shows the bus moving slowly on the road before making a sudden sharp left turn at approximately 12:17 p.m. The bus crossed six lanes of traffic, crashed through the road guardrail, and fell down the embankment into the Hongshan Reservoir. A survivor recalled the accident in a news interview: "When the bus just fell down to the river, the glass shattered, water poured in immediately. I swam out at the moment of impact."

Rescue operations

At 1:30 p.m.,

Fire and Rescue Corps mobilized 19 fire engines, 21 rubber boats and 97 rescue personnel (including 17 divers) to the scene for rescue. Entrusted by Party Secretary

Sun Zhigang Sun Zhigang (; born 30 May 1954) is a Chinese politician who was the former Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou. He was formerly mayor of Yichang, the secretary-general of the Hubei party committee under Yu Zhengsheng, the Vice-Governor of An ...

, Governor

Shen Yiqin Shen Yiqin (; born 15 December 1959) is a Chinese politician of Bai ethnic heritage. She served as the Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou, a province in southwestern China, between November 2020 and December 2022. Shen is the third female p ...

rushed to the accident site to organize rescue work. Minister of Public Security

Zhao Kezhi Zhao Kezhi (; born 28 December 1953) is a Chinese politician who currently serves as a State Councilor of the People’s Republic of China and the former Minister and Party Committee Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security, with the top p ...

appointed , Vice Minister of Public Security, to lead a working group to Anshun to guide the investigation of the causes of the incident. As of 11:00 p.m., all 37 people on board have been recovered, including 16 injured, 20 without vital signs, and one confirmed dead. Among the 37 passengers, 12 were students, five of whom had no vital signs, six were under treatment and one had been discharged from hospital. It was reported that the driver was among the dead.

Investigation

The Guizhou Provincial Public Security Department set up a special group to investigate the cause of the accident. The driver, surnamed Zhang, was a 52-year-old man from Xixiu District of Anshun city. He held an A1 driver's license and had been driving the No. 2 bus since 1997. On 12 July, investigators announced that the crash was caused intentionally by the driver who was unhappy that his rented home was demolished. In a statement, police announced that in 2016 the public house he was renting from his company was included in a shantytown renovation program that compensated him for 72,542.94 yuan which he refused to take. Early in the morning of 7 July, he returned to his home and found it about to be demolished, and called another bus driver and said he wanted to change shifts about two hours early. Police also alleged that he had purchased and drunk alcohol prior to and while driving the bus route before intentionally driving into the reservoir.

References

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Crash

Rescue operations

Investigation

References

See also