2016 Taoyuan bus fire

The 2016 Taoyuan bus fire occurred on the ROC National Road No. 2, in the 2nd Taoyuan City Great Park section. The bus that was involved was carrying Chinese tourists. At 12:57 on July 19, 2016, on State Road at the 2nd West Park section, a bus operated by Red Coral Bus Team, with the license plate number 197-EE, having driven to within 4.2 km of Taoyuan airport, suddenly became on fire and started burning. The bus continued forwards for 2.9 km until it collided with a guardrail on the left side. After the driver swerved the bus to the right, it then collided with the right guardrail, after which tourists on the bus from Dalian walked to the back door to escape, but the door was jammed by the guardrail broken in the crash and could only open 10 cm wide, making escape impossible. Afterwards, a gravel truck driver saw the fire and quickly notified a policeman surnamed Lin. Together, they attempted a rescue by breaking the bus windows but were not successful, and eventually the entire bus was consumed by the blaze, causing all 26 passengers to die. This was the most serious bus accident in Taiwan that occurred in 2016, and also the most serious one since the 2010 Suhua Highway bus accident. BBC, The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, NHK, Yomiuri Shimbun, CNN, the Daily Mirror, and various international media have made reports. An investigation by the Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office found out that the bus driver had purposefully crashed after dousing the bus with gasoline and lighting it on fire.