Almost everyone knows about the 2-year old girl who survived the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. But very few would be able to name even a single person who died in the bus accident on the Beijing-Zhuhai Highway in Xinyang, Henan province, on July 22, just a day before the train accident. The 41 people who lost their lives in the bus accident should not be forgotten, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

In this age of fast changing events, the news of the bus accident was quickly replaced by the more explosive one of the high-speed train crash. Compared with the death of the 39 people in the train crash, the 41 people who lost their lives in the bus accident got less attention.

Since the bus caught fire and most of the victims couldn`t be recognized, we don`t know what they looked like when they were alive.

All the 41 victims of the bus accident had different stories to tell. For instance, Li Wenjie, a 4-year-old boy, had just learned to write some Chinese characters, and was on the bus to visit his mother who works in Shandong province, and a 23-year-old man, Li Hui, regularly met his parents who worked outside his hometown.

Perhaps it is easier for the public to identify with the 39 victims of the train crash, for in this age of speed and technological advancement, long-distance buses represent days gone by. Perhaps most of the 41 victims of the bus accident didn`t have 3G phones to click the last moments of their lives and didn`t leave postings on microblogs for posterity. But that does not mean their lives were not as important as victims of the train crash. Their deaths were as big a loss for their families and friends as those of the train crash.