(Bombay) At least 25 people were killed and eight others injured after a crashed coach caught fire overnight from Friday to Saturday on a highway in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday .
“There were between 30 and 35 people on the bus. Twenty-five people died and eight others were injured,” Baburao Mahamuni, a police official, told AFP.
The coach was heading towards Pune city after midnight when it hit a pole and overturned, causing the tank to catch fire, it added.
Three children are among the dead, a police officer told reporters.
The injured were taken to a hospital near the crash site which is about 400 kilometers east of India’s financial capital, Bombay.
The bus driver, himself injured in the crash, has been detained for questioning along with the controller, Maharashtra’s rural development minister, Girish Mahajan, told reporters. According to him, the driver explained that a tire had exploded, “but it seems that he fell asleep”.
“We will have to see what happened exactly,” he added. Police said they have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.
“Deeply saddened by the appalling bus accident in Buldhana,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who lost their lives. May the injured recover quickly.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expressed his “deep grief” and offered compensation of 500,000 rupees (around C$8,000) to the families of those who died.
Accidents are common on India’s extensive road network, which is poorly maintained and notoriously dangerous.
Among the main causes of accidents are excessive speed, failure to wear a helmet – in a country where sales of two-wheelers far exceed those of cars – and failure to wear seat belts.
According to a World Bank report published in 2021, 11% of the total number of road deaths occur in India, despite the country having only 1% of the vehicles in the world.
One hundred and fifty thousand fatal car crashes take place in India each year, according to an estimate provided in this report, resulting in the death of one person every four minutes.
According to the same source, road accidents cost India some $75 billion (about C$100 billion) a year, while medical expenses and lost income push many survivors into poverty. to an accident.