The death toll in Wednesday’s accident when a Kulu-Anni private bus skidded and plunged into the swollen Beas river at Jhiri about 35 km from here has risen to 39. Apart from this, 21 persons have been injured, seven of them seriously, R.S. Negi, SP, said.
Negi said the accident occurred when the driver was talking on a mobile telephone and the bus was allegedly being driven rashly. Some injured persons, also said that the driver was drunk.
According to the SP, the driver jumped out from the bus as it went out of control. Police succeeded in nabbing him on Thursday morning.
With the deaths, there has been a demand in the state for the launch of a massive state-wide campaign to weed out drivers addicted to alcohol by breath-analysers and stringent provisions, including the cancellation of the driving licenses.
Additional District Magistrate, Pankaj Rai, said postmortem of all the dead bodies retrieved from the ill-fated bus has been conducted handed over to the relatives. The 42-seater private bus was carrying over 70 passengers when the accident took place.
The Himachal Government has ordered a magisterial probe into the accident.