Kindergarten head jailed for school bus accident

The board chairman of a privately-run kindergarten in northwest China's Gansu province was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for a deadly school bus crash that killed 19 children late last year, a local court said.

Twenty-one people, including 19 preschoolers and two adults, died in November when the school bus, originally a nine-seat van and illegally carrying 64 people, crashed head-on with a coal truck in Zhengning county of Qingyang city. A further 43 were injured, including 11 critically.

Li Jungang, board chairman of the Little Doctor Kindergarten and also owner of the school bus, received a seven-year jail term after being convicted of a traffic accident crime, the Zhengning county people's court said in a verdict.

The verdict does not include civil compensation.

Gao Hongxia, Li's wife, said she will appeal the ruling.