A bus transporting Chinese residents to a COVID-19 quarantine facility overturned Sunday, killing 27 people.
The bus carrying 47 people overturned around 2:40am local time, rolling into a ditch along a stretch of mountainous highway, according to CNN. Authorities reported that the passengers were traveling from Guiyang, the capital of the Guizhou province, roughly 155 miles away, to a remote county for quarantine, CNN continued.
The crash and deaths sparked anger and criticism over China’s zero-COVID policy and drew questions over why the driver was flouting strict transportation prohibitions on long-distance coach travel between 2am and 5am, the outlet reported. Social media users flocked to one post which read, “What makes you think that you won’t be on that late-night bus one day?.” It garnered more than 250,000 likes before it was censored, according to CNN.
Twenty-seven people were killed and 20 others injured after a bus turned on its side in #China‘s Guizhou Province early Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/TTMYugVg6Q
— IANS (@ians_india) September 18, 2022
“We’re all on the bus. We just haven’t crashed yet,” another person wrote on social media, CNN noted. Chinese censors are trying to mitigate the outrage online, only allowing viewers to see official government and media accounts reporting on the crash, CNN noted.
Images from the crash show the driver wearing full hazmat gear that left only his eyes uncovered, with video footage showing what appears to be the top of the bus completely crumpled, CNN continued. Only two people have died from COVID-19 in the Guizhou province out of 38 million people, since the pandemic first hit some time between late 2019 and early 2020. (RELATED: Don’t Worry About Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit. China Invaded Us Years Ago, Didn’t You Notice?)
The 20 survivors were all injured in the crash, according to the BBC. No official cause has been reported as of Monday morning, the outlet noted.