Arson suspected in school bus fire that killed 13 in eastern China

Authorities in eastern China's Shandong Province said on Friday they suspect a fatal bus was started deliberately by the driver, Xinhua reported.

11 children, aged between three and six, and two adults were killed in the blaze inside the Taojiakuang Tunnel in Weihai on May 9.

Of the 11 children, five were South Korean nationals and six were Chinese. They were all students at an international kindergarten in Weihai, according to local officials.

Electrical fault and traffic accident were ruled out as the causes of the fire, police said.

Police said the driver's overtime pay and night shift allowance had been suspended, causing him to buy gasoline and start the fire in anger.

Beijing Hong Kong Tokyo Istanbul New Delhi Singapore Damascus Baghdad Islamabad Seoul Brussel Moscow Canberra Cairo Nairobi Johannesburg Washington,D.C. Los Angeles Rio de janeiro 563km

Related stories:

China expresses condolences to S. Korea after deadly school bus accident

E. China school bus accident kills 5 Korean nationals, 7 Chinese</s>BEIJING — A 22-year-old man made the bomb that exploded at the front gate of a kindergarten in eastern China, killing eight people, including himself, investigators said Friday, apparently closing the case on one of the worst school attacks in the country in recent years.

see also Deadly blast at China kindergarten entrance BEIJING — Local government: 7 killed in an explosion at...

Police said the suspect was identified primarily using security camera footage and DNA collected at the scene of the blast, which struck Thursday as relatives were waiting to pick up students at the end of the school day. Only the suspect’s surname, Xu, was released and no motive was provided.

Investigators found bomb-making materials at Xu’s nearby residence in the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province. Emblazoned on its walls were the Chinese characters for death, disaster and other related dark themes.

Xu had left school because of a nervous system disorder, whose symptoms can include depression, anxiety, dizziness, vision problems and problems with basic bodily functions, the police said at a news conference. He had since moved to a rented accommodation in the neighborhood and was working as a casual laborer, the city’s deputy police chief, Pei Jun, told reporters.

Two people died at the scene and six died after being taken to a hospital. Sixty-five people were injured, including eight listed in critical condition.

The disorder Xu was described as having is not itself a mental illness. Rather, it suggests he suffered symptoms that could have stemmed from an undiagnosed or untreated mental illness, said Dr. Michael Phillips, a psychiatry professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Emory University in the United States.

Xu could have been influenced by the widespread public attention received by similar past attacks on schools, Phillips said.

“That could influence somebody who wanted their death to mean something in a lot of ways,” Phillips said, adding that severity of mental illnesses typically peak at about Xu’s age.

The blast at the Chuangxin Kindergarten in Xuzhou’s Fengxian county occurred at 4:50 p.m. before school had let out for the day and no students or teachers from the kindergarten were among the injured, according to a statement from local authorities.

However, videos purportedly from the scene showed children — possibly relatives of the kindergartners or passers-by — among the casualties.

A witness identified only by the surname Shi said the force of the blast sent people flying several meters (yards) into the air, according to the state-run Global Times.

Videos posted by the People’s Daily showed a chaotic scene, with children and adults lying on the ground, some of them motionless, their clothes blown off them, and others struggling to get up. Clothing, shoes and other items were strewn across the area beside pools of blood.

The videos showed ambulances arriving, medics wheeling people into an emergency room and medical personnel treating what appeared to be a child.

Kindergartens, elementary schools and students in China have been attacked several times before by suspects authorities have said were mentally ill or bore grudges against their neighbors and society.

Last month, a driver angry over the loss of overtime pay set fire to his school bus in the eastern city of Weihai, killing 13 people, including 11 children from China and South Korea.

In 2010, nearly 20 children were killed in attacks on schools, prompting a response from top government officials and leading many schools to beef up security by posting guards and installing gates and other barriers. Last year, a knife-wielding assailant injured seven students outside a primary school in a northern city.

China maintains tight control over firearms and most attacks are carried out using knives, axes or homemade explosives.</s>A Mesa school bus went up in flames this week just minutes after the last student got off the bus.

The driver had just dropped off his last student from Taylor Junior High after school Monday when the fire started, according to a school district spokeswoman. No one was hurt.

Video captured by Blakeland Lazcano shows black smoke billowing from the back of the bus.

Lazcano said he saw the burning bus, near Hampton Avenue and Higley Road, on his way home from work. He said he alerted the bus driver after he and another person saw the gas tank was “leaking fire.”

Helen Hollands, a spokeswoman for Mesa Public Schools, said parents were not informed of the fire.

This is the second Mesa bus destroyed by fire in the last three years. Another Mesa school bus, carrying special needs students, caught fire in 2014. No one was injured.

An Arizona Republic investigation in 2016 found that almost 3 out of 10 Arizona school buses have a major defect, resulting in a failure of state safety inspections.

Records on Mesa's bus inspections were not immediately available.</s>Fairfield police have arrested a man who they said was trying to get into an argument with a school bus driver who was letting students off the bus.

It started on Morehouse Lane, near Cedar Road, when the driver, identified as James Berrien, was involved in a disagreement at the stop sign with a school bus driver.

Police said Berrien followed the school bus, got out of his car and tried to exchange words with the bus driver who was at a stop.

Parents waiting for their children saw the interaction and intervened, police said in a press release.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Berrien, who then turned himself in at the police department on Tuesday.

He was charged with breach of peace and disorderly conduct and is expected to appear in court on Feb. 15.</s>WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A bus driver has received an infraction after an accident involving a bus and a car on Friday afternoon.

Officers say they were dispatched to the area of Simsbury Road, west of Bloomfield Avenue in West Hartford after receiving reports of a motor vehicle accident involving a school bus.

A bus carrying students from the Hebrew High School of New England was west on Simsbury Road when it collided with the rear of a passenger vehicle. The driver of the vehicle that was rear-ended complained of neck pain, but was not transported to the hospital.

Traffic in the area was restricted for a short time, but the road has since reopened.

The driver of the bus was issued an infraction for failure to drive a reasonable distance apart.</s>The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on East Division Street. The school bus left Wilson Central High School to take students to their homes and was on its normal route when an unidentified driver hit a side mirror on the bus and then fled the scene, according to Wilson County Schools spokesperson Jennifer Johnson.

Johnson said some glass from the broken mirror flew into an open side window on the bus and caused minor injuries to the driver.

No students were injured in the incident. They were offloaded onto another bus and taken home.</s>A Wake County school bus driver and monitor have been fired after a 6-year-old kindergartner was left on a bus alone for more than an hour after falling asleep.The incident happened at PAVE Charter School. Khalil Watkins, 6,and his family spoke exclusively with ABC11 last week and explained that he fell asleep riding the bus Thursday morning.In the wake of that incident, PAVE Managing Director Alex Quigley released a statement Monday:PAVE outsources its bus service and has a contract with Elite Transportation.A second family is coming forward to complain about a busing problem with their child.Parent Gabrielle Bredell said a bus driver took her 8-year-old daughter, Sry'Riah Walters, from PAVE to a barren parking lot of the Boys and Girls Club, and left the child there all alone."I just don't understand how you can be so careless with somebody else's child," Bredell said.Bredell said she wasn't able to get to the bus stop in time and the bus driver should have returned the child to the school."These are children, they can't defend for themselves," Bredell said.ABC11 has been reaching out to Elite Transportation since last week and Monday, was able to get a representative on the phone.The employee would not identify himself, and hung up the phone when asked for comment.The fact that PAVE is cutting ties with Elite at the end of the school year is offering some resolution to parents."Unless you guys did the story, I don't think there would have been anything done whatsoever," Bredell said.</s>During this week’s meeting of the Cherokee County Board of Education two students and a bus driver were recognized for their heroic efforts after the school bus they were riding on caught fire back on April, 6th on Highway 411 North at New Bethel Baptist Church in the Key Community.

Bus Driver Darrell Green and two students 15 year old Austin Moss and 13 year old Hagan Matthews were presented with certificates of appreciation by Transportation Supervisor Harold Pearson.

When that bus caught fire, Mr. Green and both boys quickly went to work making sure every student got off the bus safely. Matthews and Moss assisted the younger students in getting off the bus before getting off themselves.</s>OKLAHOMA CITY - A school bus driver is being praised for her calm demeanor during a horrific crash in Oklahoma City.

On April 26th, the bus carrying students from Edmond North High School and Edmond Santa Fe High School was involved in a crash.

A camera on board the bus captured the moment a pickup truck crossed the center line and slammed into another car.

Immediately, the bus driver hit the brakes but the truck rolled into the front of the bus. As bystanders stopped to help both drivers, the bus driver kept students on the bus and in their seats.

Edmond Public School officials say there were 19 children on the bus at the time of the crash. Fortunately, none of them were injured.

Three people in the other vehicles were rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. However, they were all expected to survive their injuries.</s>Photos from the scene show a school bus on its side after a crash on May 4, 2017. (FOX5 source)

One woman was killed and 16 students were injured in a bus crash Thursday in Las Vegas.

"I've been in this department for 24 years and I have not seen what I seen yesterday," Shannon Evans said Friday, describing the deadly bus crash. Evans is the transportation director for the Clark County School District.

Friday, she and other members from the district held a press conference to discuss what the school district did correctly during the crash, including notifying parents within 30 minutes.

"We train for incidents like this," Captain Ken Young of CCSD police said.

The bus driver, Dawn Rice, was also praised for her quick work alerting emergency personnel of the crash.

"The first words out of her mouth were 'my students, my children'," Evans said.

The bus driver has worked for CCSD for 13 years, it wasn't her normal bus route. The district said this bus driver has also had another minor accident in a school bus, but didn't elaborate.

The District representatives said they did not want to comment on if seat belts could have prevented 14 kids being sent to the hospital.

"We can play 'What if' and I hate to do that," Evans responded.

For the bus driver, the district said they will work with her until she is ready to go back to work. Her first day back, she will be accompanied by another driver so she's not alone.

Las Vegas Metro Police said they are investigating this crash. CCSD spokespeople said their focus is on the students affected.

"It may take a little while but we will build (students') trust to get back on the bus," Evans said.

There have been 400 accidents this school year involving buses, but the district warns minor accident for them could be something as minor as hitting a cone, or bumping a side mirror. The District representatives also touched on school bus safety. Evans described the bus as the safest vehicle on the road, and said when a student sits in a bus, it's like they're in a roll cage.

She said there is a bus driver shortage throughout the district, but that's fine, adding they will not fill positions unless they are full comfortable with the applicant. To become a school bus driver, applicants go through a 14-day training program, which includes 35 hours driving and 40 hours in a classroom.
In China city of Weihai, authorities eventually concluded that what appeared to be an accident was a school bus driver driving students from China and South Korea to an international school set fire to the bus in a tunnel, killing two adults and 11 children. The bus driver who died was angry that his overtime allowance had been suspended.