Guangzhou - One of the severely injured kindergarten students in Monday’s crash between a truck and a school bus in Yangchun, Guangdong province, died in hospital late Monday night, raising the death toll to three.

Zhi Lanyu, deputy director of Yangchun’s publicity department, added that the other seven badly injured children are no longer in danger. Among the seven children who suffered slight skin or bone injuries, two had been discharged from hospital by Tuesday afternoon.

Jinlong Yucai Kindergarten, the owner of the school bus, admitted that the bus was overloaded when the accident took place.

A teacher surnamed Long from the kindergarten’s administrative office, who refused to give her full name, told China Daily that 19 people - 17 students, a teacher and a driver - were on the school bus, which has a maximum capacity of 11.

Two or more kids had to jam into a single seat.

“If the school bus was not overloaded, the kids might have suffered slighter injuries,” Long admitted.

She pointed out that a tight budget, a problem many privately owned kindergartens are facing, was the reason behind the overloaded school bus. Long revealed that the kindergarten has only one school bus for about 40 students in need of this service.

Contact the writer at xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn