A total of 23 people were killed and 28 were injured from two road accidents that occurred on Monday in North China's Hebei Province and Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

At least 17 people were killed and three others injured when two trucks collided with a bus at 5:20 PM near Wangdu County in Hebei on a section of the Beijing-Shijiazhuang Expressway.

The accident occurred when a truck from Chengde, Hebei Province, collided head-on into a bus moving from the opposite direction after a truck from Huludao of Northeast China's Liaoning Province hit its rear.

Fifteen people on the bus and two drivers on the truck from Chengde were killed at the scene, according to the local public security bureau. The accident is still under investigation.

In another accident in Ningxia, six people were confirmed dead and 25 others injured when a bus fell into a roadside ditch.

The bus with 34 passengers was heading to Shagou Township from Xiji County. It suddenly swerved out of control and fell into a 13-metre-deep ditch at 4:30 PM, killing three passengers on the spot and another three died later in hospital.

The driver, surnamed Ma, cited brake failure as the reason for the accident. "I couldn't stop the vehicle, so I tried the break," he said. "But it veered off the road all the same."

Wu Heping, spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, warned that December and January usually witness more accidents than usual because of a rapidly growing number of travellers.

He also mentioned there had been fewer accidents than before so far this month.

"In the first half of December, 2,468 people had been killed in 2,207 road accidents, down by 25.6 percent and 26.1 percent respectively over the same period of last year," he told a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

Speeding, overloading and illegal operation of vehicles are listed as the three major causes to accidents, according to the ministry. About 86.6 percent of the 45 major road accidents that happened so far this year involve vehicles overloaded with passengers or cargo.

Wu also disclosed that the ministry has sent 31 supervision teams with 106 members to provinces and autonomous regions nationwide to eliminate hidden dangers that might cause road accidents and fire.

(China Daily December 21, 2005)