Victims of a deadly road tunnel accident in Shanxi province were mostly elderly people taking part in a tour group, and many of them had not fastened their seat belts when the accident occurred, according to media reports.
The accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon in the Xijiata Tunnel on the G59 Expressway in Linfen, Shanxi, when their bus hit the tunnel's wall. Fourteen people died and 37 were injured as of Wednesday, local traffic authorities said.
Some survivors told Cover News, a news outlet based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, that most of the passengers were elderly tourists from Jiangsu province and were participating in a weeklong journey to scenic spots in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces.
The tourists, led by a team leader, gathered in Zhengzhou, Henan, early Tuesday morning and were picked up by the bus driver and their tour guide.
A tourist surnamed Wang, 70, told Cover News that there were just a handful of people who were younger, and the rest were elderly.
After visiting Yunqiu Mountain and having lunch there, they went back to the bus and headed for Hukou Waterfall, a renowned site on the Yellow River.
"The tour guide told us that we can rest and have some shut-eye, and everyone took a nap," a passenger surnamed Li, 76, told Cover News. He added that the guide reminded passengers to fasten their seat belts. Li did, but many others didn't, he said.
"We were all a bit muddleheaded from sleep when we heard a bang," Li said, recalling the accident. "My fastened seat belt snapped, and I hit my head and eyes and had some bruises."
He said his injuries were not severe, and that two CT scans showed no hemorrhaging in his head.
Li, along with more than a dozen other victims, were from a village in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu. They had signed up at a travel agency in Jiangsu. According to Cover News, cultural and tourism authorities in Zhenjiang have contacted the agency involved as the investigation of the crash continues.
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