Villagers stand near the half submerged
passenger-laden wagon which was pulled by a tractor in a deep ditch,
after a fatal accident in Ballia district, some 350km southwest of
Lucknow yesterday
At least 41 Hindus, many of them
children, were killed yesterday when their vehicle fell into a roadside
pond in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The tractor pulling a trailer was carrying about 60 people from a village to a local temple in the Ballia district, located more than 400km southeast of the state capital, Lucknow.
"Twenty-four victims were girls and boys below the age of 15 years. Seventeen women also died in the accident,” police officer RK Singh said.
Singh said preliminary investigations revealed that the driver was speeding and lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a bend.
"Most of the deaths were caused by drowning while others succumbed to injuries,” he added.
Fifteen people were injured in the crash and had been admitted to a state-run hospital in the district.
The state government has announced a compensation of Rs100,000 each to the families of those killed.
People in India’s rural areas often use tractor-trailers to commute between villages.
More than 100,000 people have died each year since 2007 in road accidents in India, according to government data.
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