Cheap, cheerful, but dangerous

By Hu Yongqi and Wu Wencong (China Daily) Updated: 2012-08-29 08:10

Death on the roads

At 6:34 am, Jan 5, 2009

Fifteen passengers died and 28 were injured when a sleeper bus from Shenzhen in Guangdong province rolled down a 112-meter-high hillside on its way to Tongren in Guizhou province.

At 3 am, May 23, 2010

Thirty-three passengers died and 24 were injured when an overcrowded sleeper bus, heading to Heilongjiang province from Tianjin, caught fire following a collision with a trailer. The overloaded trailer was traveling in the wrong lane.

At 7:50 am, March 14, 2011

On the 318 National Highway, a sleeper bus traveling from Chengdu in Sichuan province to the Tibet autonomous region plunged 100 meters onto another highway. Police said excessive speed and driver error led to 16 deaths and 21 injuries.

At 3:43 am, July 22, 2011

A sleeper bus from Weihai in Shandong province to the capital city of Changsha in Hunan province caught on fire in Xinyang, Henan province. The fire left 41 dead and 6 injured.

At 1:50 am, June 20, 2012

Seventeen people died and 28 were injured when a double-decker sleeper bus from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, to Xiamen, Fujian province, careered down a 36-meter-deep valley.

At 2:40 am, Aug 26, 2012

A sleeper bus crashed into the back of a tanker carrying methanol, a highly combustible liquid, on a highway in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, resulting in 36 fatalities and 3 injuries.