ir graduation trip in Hualien, local media reported yesterday. The students, seven girls and five boys from Taipei City’s Pei An Senior High School, were sent to Fenglin Township’s veterans’ hospital with minor injuries after the bus they were on smashed into another one in front of it while driving on the Hualien Highway.
“At the time, I had my head down and was playing video games when I heard a loud bang, then was thrusted forward, and before I realized it my nose was bleeding all over my clothes,” one of the victims, Yang Chieh-kai, told the United Evening News.
The students were part of a group of 350 people aboard 10 buses that traveled to the eastern tourist attraction yesterday morning. The victims were onboard bus no. 3. The group had just visited Liyutan, or Carp Lake, and were traveling to Lintienshan’s cultural park. The driver of bus no. 2, Chen Jung-chien, said the light had just turned red when he stopped and then suddenly felt his bus get rear-ended.
However, Huang Ming-tao, who was driving bus no. 3 at the time, said that he was following bus no. 2 very closely when it made a sudden stop, leaving him no time to react and brake.
The school principal, Wu Tsai-hsia, who was on the first bus, immediately reported the accident and the fire brigade from nearby Fenglin Township arrived at the scene shortly afterward to send the students to the hospital and help school authorities keep the children calm.
Wu said if parents wished to pick their children up, the school would respect the parents’ decision and help them arrange the pick-ups; otherwise they would continue with the scheduled trip.
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