33 hurt in Taiwan crash
Bus carrying mainland travellers loses control on rainy day
TAIPEI: A total of 33 people, mostly from the Chinese mainland, were wounded in a traffic accident in Taiwan’s Hualien, and 10 of them are in serious conditions, according to local health authorities.
One of the seriously wounded passengers recovered signs of life after first aid.
Other injured passengers have been taken to neighbouring hospitals by local authorities.
Most of the injured were seniors in their sixties and seventies, and the most seriously injured named Gou Xiaorong, 76, was still receiving treatment in the intensive cure unit.
The injured passengers showed symptoms of broken pelvis, bone fracture, aerothorax and intracerebral hemorrhage.
Rueye-ho Kao, superintendent of the Buddhism Tzu Chi General Hospital said two passengers with minor injuries have been discharged from his hospital after treatment, and one seriously injured was still in a coma.
The accident took place when one of two buses carrying a group of mainland travellers from Taitung to Hualien on a rainy day with low visibility broke sharply to avoid an oncoming vehicle.
The manoeuvre caused the vehicle to crash into a wall and roll over at the 43km point of the TaitungHualien coastal road.
An official surnamed Chen with Hualien’s local firefighting agency said the agency received the accident report at 6.14pm on Friday.
Local media reported 32 mainland tourists, a Taiwanese driver and a local tour guide were on the bus when the accident took place.
The mainland travellers had been identified as a group involved in a Peking opera exchange and comprised of people from 16 provincial regions on the Chinese mainland. — Xinhua