Over speeding had led to the Rampur bus mishap on Thursday in which 28 people had died, Himachal Pradesh Transport Minister GS Bali said on Friday, attributing the mishap to reckless driving.
The Minister said that as per the version of the injured, the bus was running at a high speed when the accident occurred. Bali met the injured at Khaneri hospital on Friday.
Bali said the road was comfortably wide at the spot where the incident happened and even the parapets on the roads could not stop the bus due to its high speed and the bus rolled down from the hill breaking around 6-7 parapets.
The Minister said he had directed authorities concerned for strict action against the driver, while the technical committee was still to file its report on the reasons of the accident. Talking on the compensation for the victims of the accident, Bali said that the families of the victims from BPl families would get a compensation of Rs 5 lakh approximately, while APl families of victims would get around Rs 4 lakh.
Replying to a query about rising mishaps in the State, the Transport Minister said that the number of vehicles on roads in the State had grown many fold but he number of casualties in road accidents had actually witnessed a down trend.
He said 1467 road accidents were recorded in the State between January to June this year, in which 583 people had lost their lives. While 1531 accidents were recorded in the same period last year, in which 627 deaths were recorded.
Appreciating Himachal Road Transport Corporation for safe driving, Bali said that the accident rate of HRTC was 0.03 per lac kilometre, and it was least in the hill regions country wide.
He said Rs 50 crore had been issued to the PWD department for improving safety measures on the roads. This money would be spent on raising crash barriers on the road side in hill areas.
A private bus carrying around 40 passengers had rolled down in a deep gorge in Rampur on Thursday taking toll of 28 lives at the spot.