DISTRAUGHT relatives in Taiwan gathered to mourn their loved ones yesterday after a bus carrying elderly local tourists flipped on its side and left at least 33 dead in one of the island’s worst-ever road accidents in three decades.

    There were no tourists from the Chinese mainland or foreign countries on the bus, local police said.

    Investigators were looking into excessive speed as the possible cause.

    The group of 44 people, including the driver and a tour guide, were returning from a trip to see seasonal cherry blossoms at a farm in central Taichung region when their bus crashed into the guardrail at about 9:06 p.m. Monday and veered off a highway on the outskirts of Taipei.

    Television footage showed the top of the bus ripped off, with occupants tossed onto the roadside.

    The latest victim died yesterday morning after suffering multiple injuries and internal bleeding, Wanfang Hospital said, bringing the toll to 33.

    The accident came after a bus fire last July killed 25 mainland holidaymakers and is the latest in a series of deadly incidents that have tarnished Taiwan’s safety record.

    Dashcam footage reported to be from a vehicle behind the bus showed the bus turning off the main highway onto an adjoining road. It then flipped over, leaving behind a mangled pile of metal, which was cleared later by cranes.

    Passengers were asleep at the time of the crash and one survivor said it was “hell.”

    “The bus was lopsided when it was passing the turn and people were waking up and screaming,” 54-year-old Hsiao Shiu-hua told China Times.

    Relatives returned to the scene of the accident yesterday to perform a religious ritual to appease the dead. They threw banknotes towards the slope where the bus crashed and chanted prayers.

    Family members, some in tears, also gathered at a Taipei funeral parlor where some of the bodies are being held, with one of the relatives saying the tour agency that organized the trip should “take responsibility” for the disaster.

    Some reports said the driver of the bus had been working for 14 hours straight.

    But Ringo Lee of the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan said the driver had had “sufficient rest” before taking the group to the popular scenic area of Wuling.

    The driver had two outstanding traffic violations, including one for not wearing a seatbelt, but no drunk-driving record, according to the island province’s transport authority.

    Lee added that the 19-year-old bus was a “high-class vehicle” and it was due for a check in April.

    An investigation into last year’s fatal bus inferno outside Taipei found the driver had intentionally set fire to it in a suicide bid before it veered into a crash barrier.

    Earlier this month, 21 mainland tourists suffered injuries after their bus rammed into a railway bridge in southern Taiwan.

    (SD-Agencies)