28 killed as bus falls into river in Rajasthan

 

Debris lies around a severed bus near Sawai Madhopur, 180km west of Jaipur yesterday. Twenty-eight teacher's training students died as the bus collided with another vehicle atop a bridge and then fell 60 feet onto a riverbed early in the morning.

In one of Rajasthan's worst road accidents, 28 people were killed yesterday and 36 were injured when a bus fell into a river from a bridge in Sawai Madhopur district, police said.

The accident took place about 50 km from Sawai Madhopur when the bus, which was carrying about 64 students and staff of Mother India Teacher Training College, Jhalawar, was returning from Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh.

"The incident occurred at around 3.30 am when a bus of the teacher's training school fell over the bridge in the Morel river. Rescue operations are going on and we had recovered 26 bodies," Superintendent of Police Vikas Kumar told IANS on the phone.

"Two of the injured were being taken to a hospital in Kota and they died on the way," state Minister for Information and Public Relations Ashok Bairwa told IANS.

Fourteen others who were seriously injured, have been referred to a government hospital in Kota as the Sawai Madhopur hospital does not have proper medical facilities, he said.

"We are trying to give them the best medical aid," Bairwa added.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, while expressing deep sorrow at the accident, has announced compensation of Rs.50,000 to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs.25,000 to those seriously injured.

A sum of Rs.10,000 will be given to those who received minor injuries.

In 2007, at least 100 people died when a truck fell into a gorge near Desuri Ki Naal village, about 150 km from Udaipur, in Rajsamand district. The 16-wheeler truck was carrying around 200 pilgrims to the shrine of Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district when it fell off a hill road on the Aravali range.