Bus Crashes Into 32 Vehicles in Seongnam, Injuring 57

A city bus crashed into 32 vehicles during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, November 11, in Seongnam's Bundang Ward, just south of Seoul, injuring 57 people, nine of them seriously, according to the Gyeonggi Province fire department. None of the injuries was life-threatening, the department said. The bus, driven by a man in his 60s, struck vehicles waiting at a traffic signal at about 7:34 a.m. and came to a stop after hitting the median strip, officials said. Fire authorities put the crash zone at about 100 to 150 meters of Pangyo-ro, between the Areum and Beolmal intersections, and said they sent 45 personnel and 18 vehicles, including a Medic-One ambulance team with doctors on board. Traffic on that stretch was restricted for a time, causing heavy congestion, before it returned to normal. The driver tested negative for alcohol and told investigators that the brakes had failed, according to Park Chang-gon, an official at the Bundang police station. Another police official said the driver had been taken to hospital, so the details of the crash had not yet been established, and that police "plan to investigate whether he drove under the influence of drugs." The injury count rose through the morning: officials had earlier given 48 injured, six of them seriously. Police are investigating the cause of the crash and have not said when they expect to finish.