Truck rams into bus in southern India, killing at least 20 people

HYDERABAD, India (AP) – A truck loaded with concrete stone chips rammed into a passenger bus in southern India early Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring about two dozen others, local authorities said.

The state-run transport bus was carrying around 70 passengers en route to the city of Hyderabad in southern Telangana state when a truck coming from the opposite direction collided with it near the town of Chevella, local district official K. Chandrakala told The Associated Press.

The front of the bus was badly mangled, trapping several passengers inside. Heaps of stone chips or gravel were seen dumped inside the bus, burying alive at least one passenger who was later counted among the dead.

The rescue teams struggled to cut through the bus to retrieve the bodies.

Rajendra Prasad, superintendent at Chevella hospital said 20 bodies were moved to the mortuary and will be handed over to their families after identification.

Drivers of both the vehicles were among those dead.

So were three siblings in college from a family in Tandur town. “What will I do without my daughters,” their mourning father, Yellaiah Goud, said as relatives tried to console him.

Footage aired in local media showed a mother and her infant lying next to each other, both dead.

The bus conductor, Radha, who goes by single name, said there was an “ear shattering noise when the truck hit the bus.” She sustained head injuries and was being treated.

Meanwhile, in a separate accident in the western state of Rajasthan, a drunk driver lost control of his speeding truck and hit multiple vehicles in a business area of the capital city Jaipur on Monday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 10 others, local authorities said.

The accidents came a day after a minibus carrying passengers in the same state rammed into a parked truck late Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring two others.

The passengers were returning to the desert city of Jodhpur after offering prayers to a Hindu deity in the pilgrimage town of Kolayat, officials said.

Among the dead were 10 women, four children, and the driver, senior government official Shweta Chauhan told The Associated Press. The injured were hospitalized.

The victims were trapped in a mangled mass of metal, Chauhan said.

Senior police officer Kundan Kanwaria said the driver was trying to overtake another vehicle but crashed into the truck parked on the highway.

It is not uncommon in India for vehicles to be parked haphazardly along highways, often without warning lights or reflectors. They pose serious risks for nighttime drivers and have led to several deadly crashes in recent years.

The crashes in Rajasthan came less than three weeks after a suspected short circuit sparked a fire on a passenger bus in the state, rapidly engulfing the vehicle in flames and burning at least 20 people to death.

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Roy reported from New Delhi.