18 die as bus plunges into gorge in India

A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Arunachal Pradesh state Transport Minister Zoram Sangliana says the bus plunged about 150 feet into the gorge early this morning near Keifang, a village 60 miles east of Aizawl, the state capital.

Monsoon rains triggered the landslide in the region.

Seventeen bodies were recovered and one injured person succumbed to injuries while being taken to nearby Saitual rural hospital after the bus met with the mishap at around 12.45am, police said.

Among the dead, nine persons, including two non-tribals, have been identified. Aizawl Superintendent of Police LR Dingliana Sailo said that except for two persons, all the other injured persons have been sent to Aizawl Civil Hospital for treatment.

India has the world's deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed every year.

Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

Saturday 21 July 2012 


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/18-die-as-bus-plunges-into-gorge-in-india-7963949.html


http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_18-killed-17-injured-as-bus-falls-into-gorge-near-aizawl_1717881

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At least 21 killed, 29 injured in Mexico bus crash

A bus accident early Friday in the western Mexican state of Nayarit left 24 dead and 14 injured, authorities said.

The original casualty report spoke of 21 dead and 29 injured.

First responders initially counted 17 bodies, but discovered four additional victims when the bus was lifted, while three injured passengers died en route to the hospital, sources in the state Attorney General's Office said.

The accident occurred around 4:00 a.m. on a stretch of highway between the towns of Puente de Chapalilla and Tequepexpan, Nayarit government spokesman Sergio Cañedo told Efe.

The bus was carrying a group headed to the beach in the village of Rincon de Guayabitos when the predawn crash occurred, Omar Landazuri, a duty officer for the Nayarit State Civil Protection Service, told AFP. "The bus overturned and began to roll down a ravine, ejecting people along the way," Landazuri added, saying that many of the victims died from the battering they received.

Injured survivors were taken to three hospitals in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. Residents of a community in Chihuahua pooled their resources to charter the bus for the beach excursion, Nayarit officials said.

Schools let out in Mexico two weeks ago and the country's highways are crowded with families en route to vacation spots.

Landazuri said the bus, owned by Golden Express Tours, had been rented by the group from the northwestern Chihuahua state for a trip to the Pacific coast.

Friday's crash brings the number of serious bus accidents in Mexico to four this year. In the most serious recent incident, on April 20, a truck smashed into a bus transporting farm workers in the eastern state of Veracruz, killing 43 people.

Around 24,000 people die from road accidents in Mexico each year, according to insurance companies -- a figure almost double the annual drug violence death toll.

Saturday 21 July 2012 

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/07/20/24-die-in-mexico-bus-crash/#ixzz21D5X1SRF

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Four dead, 36 injured in Egypt tour bus accident

Egypt’s official news agency says a bus crash in the south has killed four Egyptians and injured 35 others, including some tourists.

The state-run Middle East News Agency says the accident happened early Friday morning on a highway linking the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada with port of Ras Gharib in southeast Egypt.

The agency said that the bus, carrying about 40 passengers, was speeding and overturned, killing a mother and her two-year-old toddler along with two other men. Among the injured were three Germans and one Ukrainian.

Ambulances immediately transferred the injured to Hurghada Public Hospital, and some critical cases were then taken to Gouna Hospital and the Nile Hospital.

The governor of the Red Sea, Major General Mahmoud Assem, told state television that he asked doctors from the military hospital in Hurghada to help treat the injured.

Red Sea security head Major General Mostafa Bedair was notified, as was the Red Sea prosecution, which will begin investigations.

Assem requested that the head of prosecution in Hurghada take the testimony of the injured and give permission for the burial of the dead.

Road accidents are common in Egypt due to badly maintained roads and vehicles and poor enforcement of traffic laws.

Police estimate that road accidents kill about 6,000 people a year in Egypt, a nation of about 84 million. 

Saturday 21 July 2012

http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-speeding-us-overturns-killing-4-injuring-35/

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