Driver, passenger fight causes Chongqing bus tragedy

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The tragedy of the bus that plunged into the Yangtze River in Chongqing Municipality last Sunday was caused by a fight between the driver and a passenger, the Wanzhou District Bureau of Chongqing Public Security Bureau told media on Friday.

According to the police investigation, a 48-year-old female passenger, surnamed Liu, argued with the driver, surnamed Ran, because she missed her stop, and then attacked the driver, causing the incident.

The video shows that Liu attacked Ran with her mobile phone twice when Ran was driving the bus. Rather than stop in the middle of the road, Ran kept driving, but in defending himself, he lost control of the bus and tragedy happened.

The plunged bus is salvaged out of the water in Wanzhou District, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, October 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

The surveillance video was acquired after the divers got the SD card from the water where the bus plunged into early on Wednesday morning.

The bus with 15 people on board plunged into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou District, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, on Sunday morning.

The video, showing the fistfight between Liu and Ran, aroused heated discussions on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo on Friday.

Besides feeling terribly sorry for the tragedy, many internet users blamed Liu for the crash, and some others criticized the driver for his reactions.

One weibo user named Chuxia comments that from now on, we should stand out and stop the conflicts between passengers and drivers to avoid these type of tragedy.This comment received 212,309 supports.

Another user advised that it was urgent to install a safety barrier in the bus to stop passengers getting in contact with the bus driver, like in taxis. More than 116,685 users favored this suggestion.