【纽约时报12.14】中国校车事故 15人死亡

尕小伙

BEIJING — A half-filled school bus ferryingstudents home from a primary school in rural China rolled into an irrigationcanal, killing 15 children and injuring 8 others, officials said.

来自北京官方的消息，在中国江苏一县城发生一起校车事故，该校车在接送学生的过程中，翻入农田灌溉渠，已经造成15人死亡，8人受伤。

The accidentMonday evening in Jiangsu Province has renewedpublic indignation over school bus safety and, more broadly, complaints aboutinadequate government spending on education.

周一晚间，江苏校车事故噩耗传出，再次引发舆论哗然，公众对政府在教育和校车安全经费等问题的“不作为”表示不满。

It was nearly onemonth ago that a coal truck in the northwestern province of Gansuslammed into an overloaded minivan that was being used as a school bus, killing21 kindergartners and 2 adults. The losses of life, and the anger, werecompounded by the fact that the nine-seat vehicle was crammed with 64 people.

就在一个月前，在中国西部省份甘肃，同样发生了一起校车事故，一辆载煤的大货车撞上一辆超载的校车，造成21个儿童和2名成人丧生的恶性事故。引发众怒的原因是，一辆只有9座的面包车居然塞入了64个人，从而造成众多天真儿童丧生。

At the time, manyChinese and a number of media outlets accused the government of miserlyspending on school transportation while directing enormous sums toward thepurchase of new cars for bureaucrats.

恶性事故发生后，众多民众和一些媒体纷纷指责政府在校车问题上的开支吝啬，而在政府用车方面确巨资采购的行为。

Overcrowding,however, apparently played no role in the latest accident. The vehicle had acapacity of 52 but had only 29 students on board, according to thestate-controlled Xinhua news agency. The driver lost control of the bus afterhe swerved to avoid a pedicab, and it rolled, landing upside down in a canalwith less than two feet of water.   

江苏发生的这起事故显然不能和超载联系起来，据官方媒体新华社报道，事故车辆的荷载能力为52人，事故发生时车上有29名学生，肇事司机为了避让一辆人力三轮车，导致车体失控，翻入路边的仅有不到1米水深的灌溉水渠中。

“Students became trapped at the bottom ofthe overturned bus and drowned as water gushed into the wreck,” Zhang Bin, anofficial in Fengxian County told Xinhua. The news agency said the bus driverwas detained for questioning.

徐州市丰县副县长张斌，在接受新华社采访时说：学生们被困在了仰面朝天的校车中，水从车底涌入车体内部，肇事司机已被警方控制，正在接受调查。

The accidentoccurred one day after the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued proposedregulations on school bus safety. After the accident in Gansu last month, Prime Minister Wen Jiabaopromised to address the problem of substandard school transportation. The newrules lay out the safe operation of school buses, including a mandate for localschool districts to hire full-time bus maintenance crews and a requirement thatbuses must be replaced after eight years or about 125,000 miles. They do notindicate how new vehicles and staff will be paid for.

事故发生的前一天，中国国务院才发布了关于征集《校车安全条例》的相关意见稿。在上个月甘肃校车事故后，国务院总理温家宝就承诺解决校车安全问题。新条例意在加强校车安全管理，包括聘请专职的校车维护人员，以及对使用超过8年或里程数超过20万公里的车辆更换等问题都做了相应明确的规定。但所需费用是由地方政府还是学校负担的问题仍然没有明确界定。

The accident in Jiangsu prompted anger and complaints on microblogs in China.“All the attention the first school bus crash drew cannot keep history fromrepeating itself,” one comment read. “All we get from the government is lip service.I’m speechless.”

江苏校车事故在微博中引发大规模的讨论。有微博评论道：“社会对校车事故的高度关注，缺未能阻止悲剧的频频发生。”“从政府得到的只有口头承诺，我很无语”。

On Tuesday, thestate news media reported on another school bus accident, this one involving 59students in the southern province of Guangdong. Theaccident, which was also on Monday, injured 37 students, according to Xinhua.

周二新华社报道了另一起周一发生在中国南方广东省，一辆载有59名学生的校车事故，导致其中37名学生受伤。

译者注：为逝去的孩子们默哀。

另外，处女翻译贴，请多斧正，我的专八证灰尘都落满了。。。