Photo: CCTV

The bus which crashed on Saturday in Yixing, a county-level city in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province that left 36 people dead and 36 injured was not licensed for passenger transport, media reported. 

The bus is believed to be affiliated with a tourist transport company in Central China's Henan Province. The branch of the company was punished for several violations, including passing a route it was not authorized to pass through.

Local police said nine of the injured are in serious condition in the accident that happened along China's north-south G25 expressway on Saturday at 7 am. The bus swerved into the central divider and into the opposite lane, leading to a collision with an incoming semi-trailer, which had three people on board. 

Most of the passengers were migrant workers returning to Linquan county in Anhui Province. The bus left Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang Province at 5 am on September 28. Many of the passengers were asleep at the time of the accident, which may have contributed to the heavy casualties, according to caixin.com, a Beijing-based news outlet. 

Many of the injured said there were many private buses in Zhangxin town, and it was not clear whether they were affiliated with the transportation company.

Following a rescue operation which took more than eight hours, the injured were sent to hospitals in Yixing. Medical experts have been dispatched to provide treatment, the police report said.

The owner of the vehicle has been detained. The State Council has set up a special investigation team to Yixing, caixin.com reported.

On September 28, the Zhengzhou traffic transport bureau in Henan Province urged local passenger transport companies to guarantee security and regularly conduct safety inspections. It said all personnel in the industry should be qualified to drive and to apply a dynamic monitoring system. In case of emergency, the bureau required personnel to deal with it effectively and report to the superior management department within an hour, according to caixin.com.

An official from the traffic transportation bureau of Linquan county told caixin.com that personnel and vehicles of long-distance passenger freight companies must reach a certain level. Only vehicles registered with local companies can obtain road transport permits. 

Global Times