Driver fatigue blamed for accident killing 36

BEIJING - Driver fatigue was blamed for a road accident that left 36 people dead in Northwest China's Shaanxi province last August, according to a report released Friday by an investigation team under the State Council.

A double-decker sleeper bus burst into flames after rear-ending a methanol tanker on a section of the Baotou-Maoming Expressway, a motorway that spans the length of China from the southern province of Guangdong to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in the north.

The accident happened in the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi Province on August 26, killing 36 people on the bus and injuring three.

The investigation team's report said the driver of the sleeper bus drove while tired and failed to apply the vehicle's brakes in time.

Methanol leaked out of the tanker after the collision, which also caused electrical equipment inside the sleeper bus to short-circuit, triggering a fire. The fire burned both vehicles and ignited the chemicals, burning a section of the road and a nearby culvert, the report said.

The accident resulted in direct economic losses totalling 31.6 million yuan ($5.06 million). Local judicial authorities have taken legal action against 10 people involved in the accident, according to the report.