Eight people died and 45 others were injured when a sleeper coach veered off a mountain road in central China's Hunan Province on Saturday, local traffic police confirmed on Sunday.

 

The double-decker bus carrying 53 people was en route from Yibin, in southwestern Sichuan Province, to Wenzhou, in eastern Zhejiang Province when the accident occurred at around 8 AM on No. 209 national highway in Yongshun County.

 

Eight people died on the spot and among the 45 injured, 20 were in critical condition, the Changsha Evening News reports.

 

Police said the bus was registered in northern Hebei Province and an investigation into the cause of the accident was underway.

 

In China, fatigue driving, overloading, speeding and driving by drunk drivers are the major causes of traffic accidents. Last year, 89,455 people were killed in 378,781 traffic accidents in the country, the Ministry of Public Security said earlier this month.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2007)