Official bodies meeting to decide on national school bus standards in wake of Gansu tragedy

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai November 23) - An accident involving a school bus colliding with a truck in Gansu last week, claiming the lives of 19 children, has caused widespread public anger at Chinese school bus standards. The Ministry of Education announced today that it convened with over ten other departments to establish national standards for school buses, people.com.cn reported.

"Our first job is to make sure that none of the school buses [currently in operation] will be involved in any sort of accident," Ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei said in an interview with fawan.com. She confirmed that government bodies are working in coordination with regional and provincial committees to create national school bus standards to prevent similar situations from arising in the future. She added that the moment the Gansu accident occurred, the Ministry of Education sent an emergency notice to all of its subsidiary branches. "[We must] ensure that no such accident will occur again," she said.

A total of 21 fatalities were reported when a nine seat school bus illegally carrying 64 people crashed with a coal truck in Yulinzi township, Zhengning county, Qingyang city. A further 43 were injured.