Twenty-six passengers were killed when a bus plunged off a 16.5-meter-high mountain slopesintosa river in Heyuan, Guangdong Province, on Friday morning. Fourteen passengers survived the 7:20 am accident.

　　Authorities blamed the slippery, narrow road, speeding (70 kilometers per hour), as well as lack of protection rails and signs at the bent, and overloading (the bus was carrying 40 instead of the approved maximum capacity of 30) for the accident. All the dead were Heyuan natives, except for a father and his daughter, 2-3 years old, from Hunan Province.