Nineteen persons died and over a dozen injured in a bus accident in Sirmaur district on Friday morning. The vehicle skidded off the road and fell into a 120-meter deep gorge.
The ill-fated private bus of Chauhan Travels was on its way to Solan from Purandhar in Sirmaur district when it skidded at a sharp turn at Bharari village, around 15 km from Nohradhar in Sirmaur around 7.20 am.
The bus was carrying about 40 passengers, including women and school and college-going students. According to the district administration officials, driver Virendra Kumar (32) lost control over the bus near the State Bank of India branch at Bharari and the vehicle skidded into the gorge.
Sirmaur SP Sumedha Dwivedi said that rescue operations were carried out on a war-footing and the injured were shifted to hospitals in Solan, Rajgarh and Nohradhar, where they are undergoing treatment. Six critically injured passengers were referred to Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla.
She said that four persons, including the bus driver died instantaneously, while 15 others lost their lives on way to hospital. The bodies were extricated from the bus by police personnel, district administration officials and local people after which they were sent for autopsy at Nohradhar and Rajgarh hospital. later, the bodies were handed over to the family members of the deceased.
Sirmaur deputy commissioner Priyatu Mandal said that condition of most of the injured had improved and the district administration was providing all possible help to the kin of the deceased and the injured.
Meanwhile, Governor Urmila Singh and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh have expressed grief over the accident and conveyed their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members. The Chief Minister directed the district administration to provide all possible assistance to the victims and their kin.
The Chief Minister also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and directed that relief and rescue operations be carried out on a war-footing. Mandal said that a sum of Rs10,000 each had been provided as immediate relief to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs5,000 each to the injured.
The road accident is stated to be the second major accident in the past one month. Earlier on May 8, 40 persons died in a bus accident at Jhiri village on the border of Mandi and Kullu districts.
The State Transport department is in the process of identifying the 'black spots' (accident-prone spots), in the State and officials say that till now over 500 such spots have been identified, where arrangements would be made to prevent accidents.