20 Chinese farmers killed in tractor accident

Twenty Chinese women were killed and four injured when a three-wheel tractor overturned on a mountain road in the north of the country, state media said today.

The accident yesterday in northern China’s Liaoning province occurred as the women were travelling home after picking herbs, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua said the initial investigation suggested that brake failure was to blame for the accident in Liaoning’s Hengren Autonomous Manchu Region.

Motorised tricycles with cargo trailers are commonly used to transport goods and people in China.

Meanwhile, in China’s far western Xinjiang region, nine people were killed today when a long-distance sleeper bus with 48 people on board collided with a coal truck outside the capital of Urumqi, Xinhua said in a separate report. Eleven people were also injured in the accident, it said.

China’s roads are among the world’s most dangerous, with thousands of people dying each year in accidents caused by reckless driving, poor road conditions and overloading of vehicles.