After a bus caught fire overnight on a highway in western India on Saturday, police said that at least 25 people were murdered and eight more were hurt.
According to senior police official Baburao Mahamuni, the bus was headed to the city of Pune when it struck a pole and turned over shortly after midnight, igniting its diesel tank.
About 30-35 individuals were on the bus. Eight more individuals have been hurt in addition to the twenty-five fatalities, he said.
About 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Mumbai, the financial center of India, the injured, including the bus driver, have been taken to a hospital close to the disaster site in Maharashtra state.
Police announced that an investigation into the collision had begun.
“The priority at this moment is to identify the bodies and hand them over to their family members,” local media quoted police superintendent Sunil Kadasane as saying.
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Images showed the bus engulfed in flames and later the charred remains of the vehicle overturned on the highway.
Three children were among the dead, a police officer told reporters.
“Deeply saddened by the devastating bus mishap in Buldhana,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives. May the injured recover soon.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said he felt “deep grief” over the accident and pledged compensation of 500,000 rupees ($6,100) to the families of those killed.
Accidents are common on India’s vast network of roads, which are poorly maintained and notoriously dangerous.
The main causes are excessive speed, not wearing helmets — sales of two-wheelers far outstrip those of cars — and not using seatbelts.
India accounts for 11 per cent of the global road death toll despite having just one per cent of the world’s vehicles, according to a World Bank report released in 2021.
The same report estimated 150,000 car crash fatalities in India annually, or one person every four minutes.
It added that road crashes cost the Indian economy around $75 billion each year, with medical expenses and loss of income driving many accident survivors into poverty.
In May, at least 21 people died when a bus veered off a bridge in India, reportedly after the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
And last October, at least 31 people were killed after a bus carrying wedding guests veered off the road and fell into a deep gorge in northern India.
AFP
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