28 killed as bus falls over bridge in Rajasthan

JAIPUR - In one of Rajasthan’s worst road accidents, 28 people were killed Monday and 36 were injured when a bus fell over a bridge into a river in Sawai Madhopur district, police said Monday.

The accident took place about 50 km from Sawai Madhopur when the

bus, which was carrying about 64 students and staff of Mother India Teacher Training College, Jhalawar, was returning from Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh.

“The incident occurred at around 3.30 a.m. when a bus of a teacher’s training school fell over the bridge in the Morel river. Rescue operations are going on and we had recovered 26 bodies,” Superintendent of Police Vikas Kumar told IANS on the phone.

Two of the injured were being taken to a hospital in Kota and they died on the way, state Minister for Information and Public Relations Ashok Bairwa told IANS.

Fourteen others who were seriously injured, have been referred to a government hospital in Kota as the Sawai Madhopur hospital does not have proper medical facilities, he said.

We are trying to give them the best medical aid, Bairwa added.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, while expressing deep sorrow at the accident, has announced compensation of Rs.50,000 to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs.25,000 to those seriously injured.

A sum of Rs.10,000 will be given to those who received minor injuries.

In 2007, at least 100 people died when a truck fell into a gorge near Desuri Ki Naal village, about 150 km from Udaipur, in Rajsamand district. The 16-wheeler truck was carrying around 200 pilgrims to the shrine of Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district when it fell off a hill road on the Aravali range.

In 2008, 24 people, including nine women and five children, were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in collided head on with a truck in Jodhpur district.