Participants pay silent tribute to the victims of a deadly crash of a COVID-19 quarantine transfer bus at a press conference held by the Information Office of the Guiyang Municipal People's Government on September 18, 2022. Photo: VCG

Three officials in Guiyang, capital city of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, have been suspended from their posts and put under investigation for the deadly crash of a bus transferring COVID-related people to a quarantine site in the early hours of Sunday, which killed 27 people and left another 20 injured.

The three officials are Zhu Gang, Yunyang district Party chief of Guiyang, team leader for Yunyang district's quarantine transfer Song Chengqiang, and a senior official of the public security bureau of the district, according to a notice published by the Guizhou Provincial Government via its WeChat account on Monday.

Authorities are carrying out a thorough investigation into the major traffic accident, the notice said, and the persons responsible for the matter will be resolutely dealt with according to the law. The results of the investigation will be announced to the public in a timely manner.

At about 2:40 am on Sunday, the incident was reported to relevant departments, which immediately dispatched rescue forces to the site on a section of the highway from Sandu to Libo in the Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou. As of 5 pm the same day, 27 people had been found dead. Another 20 were injured, and they were sent to hospitals for treatment.

The vehicle was transferring epidemic-related personnel to a quarantine site. Apart from a driver and a staff member, all the other 45 people were local residents, Lin Gang, deputy mayor of Guiyang, said at a press conference on Sunday.

Lin bowed solemnly in front of the cameras at the press briefing, apologizing to all for the great losses of people's lives caused by the accident. 

Work will be focused first on making every effort to treat the injured after integrating high-quality medical resources, Lin said, who vowed to speed up identity verification of the victims, while taking good care of the families of the deceased. Authorities will also carry out a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident, and seriously pursue legal responsibilities for relevant parties.

Guizhou authorities have urged an investigation team to be set up immediately. A review of the transfer of all personnel related to quarantine and the hidden dangers of traffic safety must be undertaken to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again, authorities said.

Guizhou on Sunday registered 12 local confirmed COVID-19 cases and 352 silent carriers, bringing the total to 103 confirmed patients and 2,355 asymptomatic ones, the local health commission said on Monday.

Global Times