Tainan bus crash kills 22

"The bus lost control while going downhill and plunged into the valley about 15 meters from the mountain road."

a highway police spokesman

A bus accident involving 46 people, mostly parents and children from Kaohsiung's Municipal Ding Jin Elementary School, left 22 people dead -- including four children -- and 24 others injured yesterday afternoon.

The school group was on its way back to Kaohsiung from the Meiling Scenic Area in Tainan County when the bus plunged off a steep mountainside.

The accident was the most serious motor vehicle accident in Taiwan in the last two decades, according to a report on cable news station TVBS.

"The bus lost control while going downhill and plunged into the valley about 15 meters from the mountain road," a highway police spokesman said on TVBS.

He said 20 passengers showed no sign of life after rescuers searched for survivors, while 24 people, who were injured, were rushed to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment. Two passengers escaped uninjured.

Police were investigating the cause of the accident.

The police spokesman said they had yet to determine the cause of the accident, and had not ruled out brake failure.

According to CNA, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) went to Tainan from Kaohsiung, where he had been campaigning for Democratic Progressive Party candidates, to visit the crash victims.

The field trip was an annual trip organized by the elementary school's parent's association, according to television reports. As of press time the school was still trying to come up with a full list of names of those on the bus.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, although the mountain roads leading to the Meiling area are steep and curvy and have been the site of several accidents in the past. Wet road conditions yesterday might have also contributed to the accident.