Final commute
▶ Families of deadly bus plunge victims wait for those still missing in Yangtze River
After four days’ search and salvage, a passenger bus that plunged off a bridge in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality was pulled out from the Yangtze River at 11:30 pm on October 31. No survivors have been found.
As of press time, 13 bodies have been recovered and two were still missing.
For more than 24 hours after hearing about the tragedy, Ran’s parents stood by the river with hot meals, waiting for their son to come back.
Ran was the driver on bus route 22 in Wanzhou, Chongqing.
In the early morning of October 28, Ran went to work as usual.
Several hours later, Ran’s bus plunged into the deep water of the Yangtze River from a river-spanning bridge after suddenly swerving into the opposite lane and hitting a red car.
Ran lived in a rental apartment with his parents, brother and nephew, according to Ran’s landlord.
“Although he had a low salary, he gave his parents 1,000 yuan ($145) a month,” a neighbor of Ran told domestic news portal thecover.cn.
The owner of the grocery store on the first floor of Ran’s apartment said, “He had been a driver for 24 years, and never had a single accident as far as I know.”
Ran drove a commuter coach between Chongqing and Wanzhou before he became a local bus driver to pursue a steadier income, and he was satisfied with his job, sources said.
The neighbors are waiting for a miracle, together with Ran’s families.
Ms. Yang, family of a missing passenger, told The Beijing News that her mother-in-law lost contact after taking the bus heading to her home to celebrate Ms. Yang’s 55th birthday.
Yang said that her mother-in-law lived on the southern bank of the Yangtze River and Yang and her husband live on the opposite river bank.
“All the families cannot eat or rest well these days,” said Yang. The whole family has been waiting by the river since the tragedy took place.
The body of 25-year-old Wei was found at 2:55 pm on October 28.
Surveillance cameras caught the last image of Wei together with her 3-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son and her mother. The four people walked into an elevator at 9:51 am on October 28, according to a video circulated online. Twenty minutes later, the bus they took fell into the water.
“Wei and her mother were taking the two children to a shopping mall because the eldest child was taking a day off from her kindergarten,” said a relative of Wei in a video posted on social media.
In the video, Wei’s husband was wailing hysterically outside of the morgue where Wei’s body was placed.
“They were happily married, so were her parents,” said Wei’s relative.
Rescue forces arrived at the scene soon after the bus plunge. Over 70 vessels, frogmen, floating cranes and underwater robots have been dispatched to the water area, according to Wanzhou’s publicity authority.
Blue Sky Rescue, a civilian organization, arrived at the site soon after receiving the assignment. Volunteer Zhou Xiaobo participated in the initial rescue. However, he did not know that his father was also in the bus.
“It is surely a sad thing, but I had no choice because so many people were trapped in the bus,” Zhou told Radio China International. “I am a rescuer, I have to control my emotions and be ready for my rescue mission.”
Zhou’s teammates cried seeing Zhou weep silently after he heard the news, but they all stuck to the rescue work.
“All the equipment for deep diving have been on standby at the ferry since 11 pm on October 29,” said Zhou Dongrong, captain of an aid flotilla of the the Shanghai Salvage Bureau.
“Multi beam sonar and underwater robots detected the fallen bus is located 73 meters underwater,” Zhou told local media.
“Such a depth can only be reached through technical diving, which requires special equipment and air and has harsh technical requirements for divers,” said Zhou.
Four divers with experience going to depths of 100 meters participated in the rescue.
After the bus was dragged out of the river, a minute-long siren was sounded at the site to mourn the victims.