Recently, the Shandong authorities released the assessment report of a major traffic accident in Dongping, Tai’an, in September 2024, which resulted in 11 deaths and 13 injuries. The report confirmed that 5 responsible individuals have been sentenced, and 27 public officials have faced disciplinary actions.
On June 17th, the Emergency Management Department of Shandong Province published the “Assessment Report on the Implementation of Rectification and Preventive Measures for the ‘9.3’ Major Road Traffic Accident in Tai’an Dongping” released by the Office of the Safety Production Committee of the People’s Government of Shandong Province.
According to the report, the direct causes of the accident were identified as follows: the driver of the vehicle involved did not operate according to regulations when stopping temporarily, with the vehicle positioned irregularly, failure to straighten the steering wheel, habitually failing to shift from drive to neutral or turn off the ignition key while pulling only the parking brake; when starting, the driver did not follow the instructions in the manual, failed to step on the brake pedal while the gear was in drive, directly stepping on the accelerator pedal and releasing the parking brake; the driver was unfamiliar with the vehicle and was driving it for the first time at the time of the accident, switching between different vehicles while driving, and improper handling caused by emergency habits developed over years of driving.
These factors led to the vehicle continuously accelerating towards the southwest, resulting in the accident. The presence of a large number of students and parents gathering and queuing in the non-motorized lane and sidewalks on the north side of the school entrance aggravated the consequences of the accident.
It was reported that the driver of the vehicle, Meng, along with 4 others, including the actual controller and general manager of Dongyuan Company, were held responsible for the accident and were recommended to be prosecuted by the judicial authorities. Additionally, 27 individuals from Foshan Middle School in Dongping County, transportation departments, education departments, public security departments, comprehensive law enforcement departments, and local Party committees and governments were recommended to receive disciplinary actions.
The release of the report on June 23rd sparked public attention and trended on Weibo.
Netizens commented, “It’s truly cruel. I couldn’t bear watching the video of the scene at that time, so many lives lost, how many families were devastated, it’s too tragic.”
“The parents and children waiting at the school gate in the morning, what should have been a routine journey to the campus turned into a tragedy of 11 deaths and 13 injuries due to a series of oversights. The root cause is not only the driver’s long-standing irregular practices but also the lack of safety training by the transportation company, insufficient crowd control during peak hours at the school, and regulatory authorities’ superficial inspections, which exacerbated the disaster.”
“According to the report, the cause of the accident was releasing the brake and pressing the accelerator too hard. Such a simple conclusion took nearly two years to be made public, which is hard to understand, but at the same time, it seems to explain why certain larger accidents are never disclosed.”
On September 3, 2024, at 7:27 am, a school bus carrying students lost control at the intersection of Xuchang Road in Dongping County, plowing into a crowd of parents and students on the roadside, resulting in 11 fatalities, including 6 parents and 5 students, as well as 13 injuries.
The vehicle involved in the accident bore the logo of “Dongping Dongyuan Public Transport Co., Ltd.” with a capacity of 52 passengers.
Information from the “Enterprise Information Disclosure Column” on the official website of Dongping County Government indicates that “Dongping Dongyuan Public Transport Co., Ltd. was established in March 2012, located on Xingye Street in the Economic Development Zone of Dongping County, with a registered capital of 500,000 yuan. In July 2014, with the approval of the county committee and government, it undertook public transportation operations in the county.”
The information also mentioned that from 2015 until the time of the incident, the company had successively acquired 143 new energy vehicles and operated on 4 urban and 22 urban-rural routes within the county.
According to Tianyancha, Dongping Dongyuan was established in March 2012, with Shandong Tai’an World Garden Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Tai’an World Garden Agricultural) holding 100% of the shares, and Zhao Fangzhong as the ultimate controller of Tai’an World Garden Agricultural, owning 95% of the shares. Its business scope includes road passenger transport station operation, urban public transportation, school bus operation services, and road passenger transport operation.
It is noteworthy that in March 2024, Dongping Dongyuan had just added school bus operation services to its business scope.