32 Dead in Taiwan Bus Crash

VOA News
Last Updated: 13 February 2017 (6:07PM)

At least 32 people were killed when a bus carrying Taiwanese tourists on a trip to see cherry blossoms overturned. The crash Monday evening was one of the island's worst accidents in decades.

Police say the bus was carrying 44 people, most of them elderly, when it crashed on an expressway in the capital, Taipei. The Taiwanese passengers had been returning from a trip to see cherry blossoms in the central region of Taichung when the bus veered off the road.

Officials say 12 people are still being treated in the hospital, many with serious injuries.

Video footage from the vehicle traveling behind the bus shows the bus flipping to its side and skidding toward the hillside as it tried to navigate a curve in the road.

Officials say many of the victims were trapped under the bus, and rescue workers brought in a crane to help lift the vehicle.

Authorities say they are still trying to determine the cause of the accident and are looking into whether the bus was speeding.

A bus accident last year left 24 Chinese tourists dead, prompting calls from China for greater travel safety. An investigation into that crash ruled the incident a murder-suicide, with the bus driver setting fire to the moving vehicle.