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Death toll rises to 24 after truck overturns in NW China

29 October 2011 17:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Another injured worker in a truck overturn in northwest China’s Gansu Province died in hospital Saturday, bringing the accident’s death toll to 24, local authorities and hospitals said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Three of the seven injured workers have died in the Dingxi Municipal People’s Hospital after medical treatment failed, while the rest four workers were in stable conditions, a doctor of the hospital said.

A light truck carrying railway construction workers lost control and slammed into the wall of a mountain tunnel at 7:30 a.m. in the Manwa township in Lintao county of Dingxi city, said an official from the Gansu Provincial Work Safety Administration.

The truck later overturned, killing twenty one people on board, including its driver, and injuring seven others.

The tunnel was still under construction as part of a railway that will link the northwestern city of Lanzhou with Chongqing in the southwest.

An initial investigation shows that a brake failure was to blame for the accident, a spokesman with the local traffic police said. ’ The truck was designed to carry construction material and two people. But it was used by a local cargo company to transport railway workers, violating traffic regulations, the spokesman said.

The province has set up an investigation team to probe into the case.