Update: March 16 11:40 p.m.
The death toll from Tuesday's tour bus crash has risen to six, while the total number of injuries has increased to 39.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Dozens were injured with five suffering fatal injuries after a tour bus sideswiped a wall in northern Taiwan on Tuesday afternoon (March 16).
Chiayi City Government Fire Bureau Deputy Chief Cheng Jung-kuei (鄭榮貴) on Facebook announced that at 4:29 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, his bureau received a report that a tour bus had swerved into a retaining wall at the 115-kilometer mark of the Suhua Highway, near Dong'ao in Yilan County. He reported that over a dozen people had suffered injuries.
Cheng said that rescue vehicles from the Second Brigade, Suao, Nanao, and Guanyin departments were dispatched to the site of the accident. He said that when first responders arrived at the scene, they found that five persons had suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, while over a dozen had sustained injuries.
Scene of the accident. (Facebook, Cheng Jung-kuei screenshot)
In a video of the incident uploaded by Cheng, the collision can be seen to have caused a huge hole to open up on the left side of the bus. Some seats can be seen on the pavement, with injured passengers being tended to by paramedics.
Of the 45 passengers on the bus, five received minor injuries, 10 suffered serious injuries, and five had no vital signs. After being rushed to the hospital, doctors were unable to resuscitate the five critically injured passengers, and they were declared dead this evening, reported CNA.
The cause of the accident is currently under investigation.
(facebook.com/205903292812064 photo)
(Photo from reader)
Injured passenger being taken out of ambulance. (CNA photo)
