Deadly crashes reveal rural growing pains

BEIJING - The Monday bus accident that claimed 15 young lives in East China's Jiangsu province happened just one day after a draft of new school bus safety rules was published for public scrutiny.

The high-profile regulations, prompted by Premier Wen Jiabao, give school buses right-of-way and spell out strict safety rules that ban overloading and cap speeds at 60 km/h.

The regulations, however, do not specify how much the government will spend on the buses, which has become a touchy issue for schools and parents in underdeveloped rural areas.