Three dead, three critical in tourist bus crash near Vladivostok

A King Long bus operated by Primorye Avtotrans with 14 tourists on board (other sources say 19), traveling from China to Vladivostok, collided late on January 22 with the trailer of a FAW Jiefang car carrier truck. Among those on board were Russians and five Chinese nationals; three people died at the scene of the accident — the driver and two Russian tourists.

Two Chinese citizens were injured but refused hospitalization. Among the injured are three women: the condition of one patient is considered extremely serious, while the others are in serious condition. They are being transported to Vladivostok from the Khasan Central Hospital. One person is in serious condition at Vladivostok Clinical Hospital No. 2.

Six ambulance teams from the Khasansky and Nadezhdinsky districts worked at the accident scene, along with disaster medicine specialists and the Minister of Health, Yevgeny Shestopalov. First Vice-Governor of Primorsky Krai Vera Shcherbina assured that the families of the deceased would receive financial assistance of 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,300 at current rates).

This report by the VLADIVOSTOK1.RU editorial team compiles everything known about the accident, which bears a strange resemblance to a fatal crash two years ago. It also involved a tourist bus, almost in the same location.

Trailer struck the driver«s compartment directly

The road the bus was traveling on is a two-lane, unlit, and winding highway. The accident site is a long series of curves. In some places, guardrails are missing. This section near the village of Filippovka is considered dangerous.

According to available information, the truck driver was at fault — he was driving toward Filippovka and failed to navigate a turn. The trailer plowed directly into the driver«s section of the bus. After the collision, the King Long crashed through the guardrails and nearly plunged into a ditch.

Primorye Avtotrans, which owns the bus, reported that the tourists were returning from the Chinese city of Hunchun to Vladivostok. They had peacefully covered nearly 130 kilometers.

The bus left Kraskino late, around 5:00 p.m. It reached the accident site at approximately 7:00 p.m. The road here passes through the territory of the Land of the Leopard National Park and has numerous sections with a speed limit of 70 kilometers per hour (approximately 43 mph). The speed of both vehicles at the time is still unknown.

Skid marks remained on the road: three thin black stripes, likely from the truck«s wheels. It appears the Chinese citizen still tried to prevent the inevitable. Other vehicles involved in the accident included a truck driving behind the bus and three passenger cars. The condition of people in the other cars is unknown. The Ministry of Health reported that other participants in the accident left the scene under their own power, refusing medical assistance.

Whose bus was it?

It belongs to the company PJSC Primorye Avtotrans. Since 2000, it has been the official carrier for regular bus routes to China, including passenger transportation to the Chinese cities of Harbin, Mudanjiang, Jilin, Suifenhe, Mishan, Dongning, Yanji, and Hunchun.

According to Kontur.Focus, the company«s General Director is Sergei Vyacheslavovich Solovyov (since 2022), who is also one of the shareholders.

Assets at the end of 2024 amounted to 635.5 million rubles (approximately $7 million). The company holds three active licenses and has 10 branches in Primorsky Krai. Over the past three years, it has been a defendant in 17 arbitration cases totaling 189.2 million rubles (approximately $2.1 million). It partially lost two cases worth 15 million rubles (approximately $167,000) and won five cases worth 1.09 million rubles (approximately $12,000). As a plaintiff, it participated in 13 cases and won six of them, totaling 3.4 million rubles (approximately $38,000).

Primorye Avtotrans buses are hired by various local tour operators without their own transport, or they carry tourists on scheduled routes — their schedule is available on the company«s website. Presumably, the people were on one of the last buses if it was indeed a scheduled route. It departed from Kraskino between 4:40 and 4:50 p.m., and the accident occurred around 7:00 p.m. or later, as the first police report appeared only at 7:46 p.m.

It is known that the company employs its own drivers. However, at the time of publication, company officials declined to comment, citing an internal investigation into the incident.

Online, people write that the deceased driver drove carefully. Others who had traveled with him previously also noted that he always paid attention to the road and insisted on seatbelt use, though many, of course, ignored this traffic rule.

In October 2025, a tourist bus from this company crashed into the trailer of a tractor traveling ahead. Injuries were sustained by the driver and seven passengers, including a child. At that time, the tourists were traveling from Suifenhe to Vladivostok along the same route.

“They speed as if on a straight road”

FAW Jiefang is a truck manufacturing company headquartered in Changchun, Jilin Province, China, and a subsidiary of FAW Group. It is the largest producer of heavy-duty trucks in China. However, which company employed the driver, a Chinese citizen, remains unknown.

He has now been sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (provision of services that fail to meet safety requirements for life and health of consumers, resulting in the negligent death of two or more persons). Police reported the man is 39 years old with six years of driving experience. It is not specified how often he had driven on the winding roads of Primorye.

Many online comments have gathered about how Chinese drivers behave boldly and carelessly on the roads. Some suggested they do not account for the terrain and road surface in Russia.

«I often drive on this highway and frequently see Chinese trucks (with Chinese license plates) driving dangerously. At night, crossing into oncoming traffic on a blind turn — easy! I»ve had to swerve a couple of times,« wrote Anton, commenting on the news in the Telegram channel »News VL.ru | Vladivostok.«

Many also noted their high speed.

«They constantly speed along this Razdolnoye — Khasan highway. They respect no one. They overtake cars on blind turns. And they have another trick: when overtaking at night, they turn on their high beams. And that beam of light hits your eyes through the mirror. I really don»t understand why they behave like this in Russia,« commented PRIMORYE in the Telegram channel Amur Mash.

However, some messenger users also noted the poor organization of the road itself.

«Everything on that Khasan highway is terrible: the repairs and the lack of a guardrail separating oncoming traffic. Traffic on this road will only multiply, as the flow of goods from China is growing. The authorities should have thought of this. But all we saw were multi-kilometer traffic jams of long-haul trucks at the Kraskino border crossing. In summer, vacationers on their beach scooters will be added. Not all of them will adequately perceive the reality of the road situation. Strategic thinking in the local Ministry of Transport, as in any relevant regional department, has long been absent,» stated a user with the nickname Frog.

The same route, the same fate

In 2023, a similar accident occurred with a tourist bus traveling from China toward Ussuriysk. The driver then was also a Chinese citizen; he lost control on a curve and veered into a ditch. The accident occurred 20 kilometers from the current accident site, during the day, with good visibility.

Two people died then, including a lecturer from Far Eastern Federal University, Angelika Sazonova, and another female passenger. Some passengers were trapped in the mangled vehicle. Khasan Central Hospital provided assistance to 31 people; 13 were treated as outpatients, one of whom was in serious condition. Hospital doctors even consulted with Sechenov Medical University in Moscow regarding that patient. It is known he was the husband of the woman who died in the accident.

The driver survived and is now in a settlement colony; he was sentenced to 2 years and 4 months of imprisonment. That bus was a scheduled service of a Chinese firm, carrying 50 people in total. The investigation established that on a section with a speed limit of 50 km/h (31 mph), the driver was traveling at no less than 109 km/h (68 mph). Victims told journalists the bus was moving very fast despite passengers« protests.

A day after the tragedy, people who had recovered from the shock told reporters the bus overturned at full speed. They climbed out through windows and helped each other escape. The dangerous driving had begun back in China: the driver had already hit a curb.