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Seattle college identifies fatalities of bus crash

Xinhua, September 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

North Seattle College said on Friday four college students killed in a head-on collision of their charter bus and an amphibious tour bus were from Austria, Indonesia, Japan and China.

While identities of three victims were released, the name of the fourth fatality was withheld because she was a minor, according to a college statement.

The three identified were Claudia Derschmidt, a 49-year-old female from Austria; Privando Putradanto, an 18-year-old male from Indonesia; and Mami Sato, a 36-year-old female from Japan, the statement said.

The fourth fatality, a Chinese national also with the two-year college's international program, was under age 18, it added.

Together with 41 other students and staff members of the school, they were riding on a charter bus along Washington state Highway 99 on Thursday when it was hit by the amphibious tour vehicle on the Aurora Avenue Bridge.

They were supposed to tour two "fun places" in the Seattle area as part of orientation for new students, and their first quarter at the school would have begun on Monday, Sept. 28.

The college said several students remained in critical condition, and other students and a North employee sustained serious injuries.

About 12 km north of downtown Seattle, a major city in U.S. Pacific Northwest, the accredited public college has over 8,500 students, including over 1,000 international students from 50 countries around the world. It claims to have been providing classes to international students for over 30 years.

On its website, the school said it has worked with U.S. government officials to assist in contacting the next of kin of the deceased, and it is working to help coordinate and communicate accommodations, travel arrangements and support for the families who lost loved ones. Endit