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Couple jailed over opera troupe's deadly road accident

Xinhua, February 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

A court in central China's Henan Province has given seven-year jail sentences to a couple after 20 members of their unlicensed opera troupe died aboard a coach driven by a man with no driving license.

Thirteen other members of the troupe were injured when their coach fell off a cliff near the boundary between Xinxiang and Linzhou in Henan on March 2 last year as they were on their way to stage a performance.

The couple, surnamed Tian and Li, had ran the troupe since July 2014, and Tian bought the coach in September of that year for transporting the performers between concerts, according to a statement from the People's Court of Linzhou City on Thursday.

The court said Tian and Li hired the unlicensed driver, surnamed Song, to drive the coach from Xingyang to Qianzhai Village in Linzhou.

Local police found the accident was caused by speeding. The coach had no seat belts.

The court also ordered Tian and Li to pay the victims' families over 10.04 million yuan (1.53 million U.S. dollars).

The couple did not appeal the verdict. Endi