Photo: Weibo of Guilin traffic police

A tourist died and six were injured after a sightseeing bus crashed into a height warning bar, ripping the roof off the vehicle.

The crash occurred at 8:10 pm Saturday in Guilin, Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Local authorities said that a height warning barrier in front of a bridge was set in accordance with regulations to ensure the safety of high-speed rail operations. 

Photos of the scene show a gray bus with its front end severely damaged after it plowed into the black and yellow height barrier, which peeled the roof of the vehicle back to the mid-section. Broken glass and other debris surrounded the crash scene. 

One person died and six were injured with non-life-threatening injuries in the accident. Police, authorities and medical staff rushed to the scene immediately to deal with the accident. 

The height limit guardrail was set up by the railroad department to ensure the safety of high-speed rail operations in accordance with the relevant national regulations, local traffic police said in a statement published on Sunday morning. 

There were 53 passengers, one driver and one tour guide on board when the accident took place. The bus driver is being questioned by police and normal traffic has resumed.  

In January, a similar accident occurred near the same location, when a caravan passed under the railroad bridge and its top side was nearly cut off, local media outlet Jimu News reported. 

"I used to walk past this height limit barrier every day on the way to school. Such accidents would happen every two or three days, mostly with trucks," a netizen living near the accident scene wrote, referring to the long-standing danger. 

Other netizens pointed out that although this accident was a serious tragedy, the setting of the height limit bar maintained greater traffic safety. "If there is no hard height limit is here, that may even lead to misalignment of the tracks on the bridge and cause a bigger accident."

The follow-up investigation of the accident and treatment work is being carried out in an orderly manner.

Global Times