Bus crashes into crowd at Suwon Station, leaving 1 dead, 17 injured
The photo shows a city bus that struck people near a bus station outside Suwon Station in Suwon, Dec. 22. Yonhap
A city bus rammed into pedestrians near a bus transfer center in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Friday, killing one person and injuring 17 others, two of them seriously injured, officials said.
The No. 30-1 bus was leaving the transfer center on the upper level of Suwon Station at 1:27 p.m. when it suddenly struck people crossing the street near the bus stop and then moved onto the sidewalk and hit more people before crashing into a pedestrian signal pole and coming to a stop.
A woman in her 70s was rescued after being run over by the bus but died.
Seventeen others were taken to hospitals with injuries, two of them seriously. The injured include the female driver of the bus in her 50's and some passengers, officials said.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
The bus was identified as an electric vehicle, but it had no malfunctioning problem during its usual operations, or on the day of the accident, officials said.
Officials said the driver was not under the influence of alcohol.
Some speculated the vehicle could have skidded on an icy road, but officials found no ice at the site of the accident. Instead, they suspect the driver could have turned the steering wheel in a hasty move, maximizing damage by hitting the entire area from the crosswalk to the pavement.
Police plan to collect and analyze surveillance and dashboard cam footage, and check the health conditions of the driver, including conducting a drug test, to determine the cause of the accident. (Yonhap)