Two people died and 49 others were injured when a sleeper coach hit a car Thursday in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the local public security bureau said.

The double-decker bus carrying 49 was en route from Shanghai to the southwestern Sichuan Province when it ran into an incoming Santana at 2:00 PM on state highway No. 316.

The bus, failing to make way for the car, lost control and veered off the 20-meter high mountain road, killing one passenger and injuring all the other 48.

One person in the Santana died and the other was injured, said Zhang Weihan, a police officer in Xixiang county, where the accident occurred.

Zhang said the Santana driver was to blame for the accident as he was driving in the wrong lane.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2007)