10 pilgrims from Amritsar killed in HP road accident
THE BUS SKIDDED OFF THE ROAD AND FELL OFF THE HILL ON A STEEP DESCENT NEAR CHINTPURNI
DHARAMSHALA: Eight women and two men from Amritsar were killed and 55 others injured when their hired private bus, which was overloaded, plunged into a gorge at Dhaliara, 15km from the Chintpurni shrine, in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district around 10.30 am on Thursday.
The bus skidded off the road and fell off the hill on a steep descent from Chintpurni into Dehra valley, on a stretch of National Highway 503 that does not have crash barriers and is called ‘khooni nullah’, a killer stretch. Not far from the spot, a bus accident had killed seven pilgrims, also from Amritsar, on May 8 last year.
Of the deceased on Thursday, four persons were identified: Shiv Kumar (40), Jagtar Singh (40), Swaran Kaur (53) and Santosh (60). The injured included 24 men, 23 women, and eight children.
Thirty-two of the injured were referred from the Dehra civil hospital to Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Tanda.
The 52-seater bus had 80 passengers, it is learnt. The group had reached Chintpurni around 5am after an overnight journey from Amritsar, and had started for Jwalamukhi temple around 30km away around 9.45 am, said superintendent of police Sanjeev Gandhi.
“Speeding seems to be the reason of the accident. The driver lost control of the vehicle on a sharp curve,” said Gandhi. A case of rash driving was registered against the driver, who was among the injured.
Witnesses said some victims were trapped under the bus and rescuers had a tough time extricating the bodies. Chief minister Virbhadra Singh expressed grief over the loss of lives and directed the district administration to provide all possible help to the victims.
On the same stretch, 10 people were seriously injured when a private bus rolled down the gorge on April 1.