Head of kindergarten said she overloaded van because she was running late

Guixi authorities in Jiangxi province have closed the unlicensed Chunlei Kindergarten in Binjiang township, and police have detained the school's principal, the city government said.

A child injured when an overloaded school bus plunged into a pond on Monday receives medical treatment. The accident in East China's Jiangxi province killed at least 11 children. ZHOU KE / XINHUA

At least 11 young children died after the kindergarten's principal allegedly drove an overloaded and speeding van into a pond.

Zhou Chun'e, the principal, loaded her seven-seat van with 17 people — 15 children, a female teacher and herself — for the drive to school on Monday morning. The van plunged into a 3- to 4-meter-deep pond at about 9 am after speeding on a country road, the Guixi publicity department said on its website on Tuesday.

Three children died at the scene, and eight others died at a hospital. Four children remain in intensive care. Zhou and the teacher managed to escape.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the kindergarten has nine teachers and 95 students. The city government said on its website, the kindergarten had been repeatedly warned about operating without a license.

The list of the victims released by the government states that the 11 children who died were 4 to 6 years old.

Zhou told China Central Television that the 15 children were supposed to be taken to school in two trips, but it was late when she left her house, and she decided to make just one trip.

Tong Huibing, a villager whose daughter was in the van, said he was desperate after hearing about the accident. He rushed into the pond and managed to help six children get out before the van sank, according to the CCTV report.

"Because my daughter was the last one who got on the van and she sat close to the door, she was able to be rescued," he was quoted as saying. "Those who sat far from the van's door were unable to get out."

Tong Boliang, 59, said he was relieved his grandson traveled with a different van that day, according to Xinhua News Agency.

"If he had been slightly late and took the second van, I might have lost him forever," he was quoted as saying.

Most of the children's parents were migrant workers, and they used the unlicensed kindergarten because there is no other preschool in the region, Xinhua reported.

The township government has agreed to pay 480,000 yuan ($77,000) in compensation to each family who lost a child, China News Service reported.

Pictures of the children's small shoes and schoolbags near the pond sparked public sympathy on the Internet, and many netizens questioned why there have been so many school bus accidents in recent years.

Last year, a nine-seat van carrying 62 students and two adults collided with a coal truck in Northwest China's Gansu province, killing 21 people.

Wang Xuming, a former spokesman for the Ministry of Education, called on parents to make their children's safety a top priority.

"There are too many risks for children to go to school by bus or by boat," he said.

Local governments have spent too much on fleets of official cars, and if one-third of that money were spent on school buses instead, the situation would be better, he said.

The Jiangxi government has ordered a provincewide safety overhaul of school transportation.

An investigation in December 2011 by the Jiangxi Education Department found that more than 90 percent of overloaded school bus incidents discovered in the province took place in private kindergartens, according to a Jiangnan Metropolis Daily report on Dec 22, 2011.

Contact the writer at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

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