New Delhi: Around 40 passengers face death while 17 injured when an overburdened bus skidded off the slippery road and rolled down into a deep gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district Saturday, police sources said.
According news reports, the private bus was on the way to Chamba town when it slipped off the road and fell into a wayside 300-feet deep trench near Rajera, some 10 km from the town, about 475 km from the state capital Shimla.
The reports say that the bus was on its way smoothly to its destination when the driver lost control over the vehicle, perhaps due to over speeding and overloading.
The rescue forces told the dead bodies and the injurd persons have been shifted to a local hospital while the rescue operation is still on.
Rescue workers said 32 people died on the spot while eight died while being taken to hospital. The toll could rise as the exact number of passengers in the bus was not known, sources told.