In one accident, a sleeper bus bound for Kashgar from Urumqi, capital of the autonomous region, ran off a bridge, resulting in the death of 34 people, and in another, 12 peopled were killed when a tractor overturned, according to SAWS.

The causes of the two accidents are still under investigation.

This August, traffic accidents have become a major killer, alarming both the public and work safety authorities.

Also on Saturday, an overloaded truck ran through the guard railing on the side of a road in South China's Hainan Province, killing 11 people and injuring 11 others, China News Service reported yesterday.

The truck was carrying five tons of shrimp and 24 passengers, all of them female.

Investigation by local traffic police revealed that a tyre failure due to overloading and inappropriate action by the driver caused the accident, said the report.

On August 2, a ferry carrying 40 passengers collided with a barge and sank in the Yangtze River in Hejiang County. A massive search recovered 20 bodies from the river, the Xinhua report said.

(China Daily August 13, 2002)