Eighteen people were killed and 22 others injured, some of them seriously, when a private bus of Sonika Travels dived 300 feet down in Beas around 12.30 pm on Saturday near Brindavan about six km from here.
The dead included two women. The fateful bus was going from Mandi to Kulu.
According to the eye-witnesses, the accident occurred when the speeding bus tried to overtake a truck.
A motor cycle coming from Kulu side perplexed the driver and he lost control over the vehicle which fell into the gushing Beas river. Some passengers alleged that the driver did not heed to their requests not to drive rashly.
Members of the Transport Union located at the site of accident swung into action and retrieved the dead and injured, which included many children with the help of the local people and rescued them to the road side before the ambulance and teams of officials and doctors arrived on the spot.
Many lives particularly of children were saved as they would have been frozen to death in the ice-cold water of Beas.
The injured have been admitted in the Zonal Hospital Mandi while the seriously injured have been rushed to the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital, Shimla.
One of the passengers Dinesh Malhotra and his wife Hem lata who were distributing the invitation cards of the wedding of their daughter took a lift in the bus and lost their lives in the fateful bus.
Nearly 115 people have died in the State in accidents during the last nine days due to abysmal condition of National Highways and State roads. It is surprising that despite the fact that entire maintenance expenses are born by the NHAI, the condition of roads in the hill State is miserable, frequently taking huge toll of human lives. Ironically the portfolio of the PWD is held by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh himself.
The CM, Health Minister Thakur Kaul Singh, Excise and Taxation Minister Prakash Chaudhary and the Rural Development and Panchyati Raj Minister, Anil Sharma have expressed deep shock over the victims of accident and conveyed deep condolence to the aggrieved families.
District Magistrate Sanjeev Kadam has ordered magisterial inquiry into the accident. An ex-gratia relief was being given to the relations of the dead and injured as per relief manual.