Woman cheats death in crash horror fall
By Cao Li and Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-08 05:41

SHANGHAI: A woman who was thrown off a motorway viaduct from the window of an overturning sleeper bus on Tuesday morning barely escaped with her life.

Li Aimin, 30, was ejected from the window of the overturning bus onto the top of a bus in a parking lot below, thereby breaking her fall and saving her life in the accident that left one dead and three injured.

At about 5 am, the sleeper Li was on made contact with the protective walls of the overpass causing the driver to swerve to avoid a collision with other vehicles.

"I was half asleep and hardly had time to open my eyes when I flew out of the window. Moments later I felt my jaw aching badly and found myself on top of a bus, with broken glass all around me," she said.

"With great pain, I moved my neck a little, saw a passer-by in the street and called for help," she added. Li is currently in hospital with her family by her side.

Fellow passenger Zhu Guoxiang was less lucky. The 28-year-old woman fractured her skull and died instantly after being propelled out of a window too, the glass of which was smashed by her body.

The sleeper, with more than 20 passengers on board, had travelled more than 1,000 kilometres from Central China's Hunan Province and was nearing its destination in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai when the accident happened.

The three injured passengers were all out of danger after being given emergency treatment, said sources at the Shanghai No 6 People's Hospital, where they are now recovering.

The Shanghai Municipal Transportation Administration said it is investigating the cause of the accident.

The bus was overloaded for most of the journey and had already suffered two blow outs prior to the accident, according to Li.

Three hours after the motorway accident, three ships that were anchored side by side, caught fire following three blasts at Shanghai's Wusongkou Port.

One body was discovered in one of the ships with rescue operations still in progress, said sources with the Shanghai Municipal Maritime Affairs Bureau.

The cause of the blasts is still unknown. An eye-witness told the Shanghai Youth Daily that the first blast happened on a small cargo ship and within one minute two adjacent oil tankers also went up in flames.

The cargo ship had never been registered with the port's administration, said sources with the municipal bureau.

(China Daily 09/08/2005 page3)

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