2 road accidents kill 19 as holiday ends

BEIJING - Two separate road accidents killed 19 people in China on Sunday as the weeklong National Day holiday ended.

In one case, 14 people were confirmed dead after two passenger coaches collided on an expressway in East China's Shandong province.

A passenger coach hit a sedan near Zibo city at 11:44 am, then broke through median barriers and collided with another coach traveling in the opposite lane, according to local traffic police.

The second coach rolled over into a trench alongside the expressway, which links Qingdao in Shandong to Yinchuan in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Six people died on the spot. Eight died in hospital. Currently, six injured people are receiving treatment.

In another accident in Ningdu county of East China's Jiangxi province, five people died and two others were injured after a rear-end collision between a truck and a commercial vehicle at about 5 pm.

The collision happened on a section of the expressway linking Jinan of Shandong and Guangzhou of South China's Guangdong province.

Four of the dead and injured in the accident are Hong Kong citizens, according to police.

The causes of the accidents are under investigation.

China's peak traffic season during the National Day holidays saw an extra surge of road travels as a result of the government's new toll-free policy during public holidays for small passenger cars.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Transport, a record of 80.87 million people traveled by road each day during the holidays, adding the total volume to 647 million.