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At least 20 people died and more than two dozen were injured in a collision between a passenger bus and a truck in southern India Early Monday morning, the second fatal highway accident in as many days.
The public transport bus was carrying about 70 passengers Hyderabad city when Accident Occurred near the town of Chevalla in TelanganaRangareddy district.
Local officials said a truck loaded with concrete stone chips was coming from the opposite direction and collided with the bus.
District officer K Chandrakala, who was supervising the rescue operations at the site, confirmed the details of the collision. He said the rescue operation took several hours as emergency workers struggled to free passengers trapped under the debris.
The impact crushed the front of the bus, trapping the driver and several passengers inside in the metal.
A police officer said, “As soon as the collision occurred, the gravel thrown out of the truck fell on the bus. This worsened the situation and led to more casualties.”
Medical teams evacuated the injured to nearby hospitals, while bystanders and police joined efforts to pull survivors from the debris.
Rajendra Prasad, head of the hospital in Chevalla, said 20 bodies had arrived at his mortuary.
He said the bodies would be handed over to the families after verification.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Expressed grief and expressed condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. “The loss of lives due to an accident in Rangareddy district of Telangana is extremely saddening. My thoughts are with the affected people and their families in this difficult time. Praying for the speedy recovery of the injured,” Mr Modi said on social media.
In another accident, a speeding dumper truck lost control and rammed into several vehicles in the Loha Mandi area of Jaipur city in the western state of Rajasthan at around 1 pm local time on Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring several.
The truck overturned after hitting the divider, crushing several cars and two-wheelers. Bystanders caught hold of the driver, who was rescued from the crowd and taken to the police station, NDTV reported.
Police have cordoned off the area and diverted traffic while rescue operations are underway at the site.
The injured were taken to Kanwatiya Hospital and Sawai Man Singh Hospital.
The accident occurred hours after another major accident in Rajasthan in which 15 people were killed near Matora village on Bharat Mala Highway.
The back-to-back accidents have again raised concerns over India’s road safety record. Thousands of people die every year in the South Asian nation in accidents caused by speeding, overloading and poor road conditions.
India’s roads remain the most dangerous in the world, with nearly 172,000 deaths in 2023 – an average of one every three minutes, according to data cited by Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
While Mr Gadkari has blamed “human behaviour” for most road accidents, experts have argued that poor civil engineering practices – including flawed road design, shoddy construction and weak compliance with safety norms – are equally responsible.
“The most important culprits are civil engineers,” Mr Gadkari had said earlier this year. “Even small things like road signs and marking systems are very poor in the country.”