Four sentenced over school bus accident

NANNING - Four people were sentenced to prison terms on Friday over a fatal school bus accident that killed two children in May in Guangxi.

The accident, which injured another 22 children on May 22 in Guiping city of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was caused by overloading and misoperation by the driver, the city court said.

The bus, which was designed to carry 11 passengers, was carrying 24 children and a teacher when it veered off a rural road and plunged into a pond while on its way to a kindergarten in Guiping, the court said.

In addition, the minibus had no school bus license and had not been subject to an annual check.

The driver and the owner of the kindergarten were both sentenced to two years and ten months. The owner of the bus was given a two-year sentence with a three-year reprieve, and the teacher who was on the bus was sentenced one year with a two-year reprieve.