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China bus slides off snow-covered bridge, 16 dead

04 January 2012 17:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge in southern China on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

About 50 people were aboard the bus when it crashed Wednesday afternoon, including 30 who were rescued, the Xinhua News Agency said. There were no immediate reports on injuries.

The bus had been traveling from the central province of Anhui when it plunged from the bridge in Guizhou province into a valley 30 feet (10 meters) below.

The accident follows the deaths of 13 people on Tuesday in the central province of Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.

The two accidents came at the start of the annual Lunar New Year travel crunch in which millions of people head to their family homes by plane, train and bus. The holiday this year falls on Jan. 23.

Road safety is a serious problem in China, with many accidents caused by poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits.

Badly maintained school transport has been the focus of public anger in recent months after a series of accidents in which schoolchildren were killed.