One hundred four Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims were on their way home from Lhasa on Monday when the truck they were riding in overturned in northwest China's Qinghai Province. Fifty-four were killed, including four children, and 31 others remain hospitalized.

The accident, which took place around noon, is attributed to overloading, faulty brakes and driver error according to an official surnamed Wang, of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture government.

The driver, who escaped with slight injuries, had an invalid driver's license, Wang said.

The 104 passengers were sitting or standing in the open flatbed of the truck when the vehicle flipped over.

The victims have not yet all been identified, but they are known to be from the Ganzi and Aba Tibetan autonomous prefectures in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"Many rural people rent trucks like this to go on pilgrimages because it's cheaper than renting a bus," Wang said.

Fifty passengers died immediately when the truck turned over on a highway near Kuola Mountain. Four others died in or en route to the hospital.

Another 31 are being treated at the local Renmin Hospital, with nine reportedly in serious condition.

The accident is the worst Yushu has seen in recent years, said a local prefectural official surnamed Xie, adding that the pilgrims would not normally have used this particular highway to go home. There was speculation that they had made a detour to a different monastery.

"Relatives of the 54 dead in 11 Sichuan counties have been reached," Xie said.

Zhao Leji, the provincial Communist Party secretary, has ordered the prefectural government to deal properly with the aftermath.

On Tuesday, another major accident occurred in Benxi, northeast China's Liaoning Province, when a bus carrying 15 people collided with a locomotive. Six people were killed instantly and the rest were injured.

The crash took place at about 1:35 PM. Preliminary investigation indicates that the bus driver's violation of traffic laws led to the tragedy.

Accidents on China's roads killed 96,870 people in the first 11 months of 2004, according to the Ministry of Public Security, and 435,740 were injured in the nation's 470,019 traffic mishaps.

Officials have blamed the high number of accidents and fatalities on inexperienced drivers, disregard for safety, and unsafe or overloaded vehicles.

(China.org.cn, China Daily January 5, 2005)