Tragedy: 7 Chinese Tourists Killed at Lake Baikal, Eyewitnesses Say Russian Driver Ignored Ice Cracks
A car overturned on the ice of Lake Baikal in Russia on Friday (February 20), resulting in 8 deaths, including the driver and 7 Chinese tourists, with one Chinese tourist rescued. Eyewitnesses said that after the Russian driver discovered ice cracks, he did not stop to detour but instead tried to accelerate through, directly causing the accident.
Eyewitnesses also pointed out that the accident vehicle sank into the lake within 2 to 3 minutes, and just before sinking, the car door opened, and other tourists used a rope to pull one person from the ice crack onto the ice surface.
According to staff from the Chinese Consulate General in Irkutsk, the rescued person is a man from Jiangsu Province.
According to reports, the involved driver is a 44-year-old Russian man who was not a regular travel agency but privately accepted orders at a lower price. Locals have confirmed the identities of four tourists (including one survivor), a family from China consisting of two couples and a 14-year-old child, as well as another female relative. The identities of the remaining four Chinese tourists are still being verified.
Not long ago, on January 28, a similar accident also occurred near Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal, where the driver accidentally drove into an ice crack, causing the vehicle to overturn, resulting in the death of one Chinese tourist and several others injured.
Comment: This tragedy makes people feel both heartbroken and angry: seven Chinese compatriots lost their lives on foreign ice, and the root cause was not an accident, but the extreme recklessness and disregard for life by unscrupulous black car drivers. Knowing about the ice cracks, they forced their way through, treating the tourists' lives as a gamble, ultimately leading to an irreversible tragedy.
What's even more worrying is that such tragedies have already happened multiple times in Lake Baikal. Unregulated tour guides, private orders, and violations of safety rules have long existed, and they keep harvesting tourists on the most dangerous ice surfaces again and again.
May the deceased rest in peace, and I hope all outbound travelers remain vigilant: no matter how beautiful the scenery is, it is not as important as safety; no matter how cheap the private order is, it is not as reliable as a formal qualification.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1857784160688139/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.