Beijing, Jul 21 (IANS): The chairman of a privately-run kindergarten in northwest China's Gansu province was sentenced to seven years in prison for a deadly school bus crash that killed 19 children late last year, a court said.
Twenty-one people, including 19 pre-schoolers, 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, reported Xinhua.
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 Friday.
The verdict does not include civil compensation.
Gao Hongxia, Li's wife, said she will appeal the ruling.