BeyondHeadlines Staff Reporter
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): At least 38 people were killed after a train hit a bus carrying wedding guests at a level crossing in Uttar Pradesh. The accident yook place at an unmanned level crossing near Patiyali, a town 250 kilo meter away from south-east of Delhi.
The express train rammed into the packed bus, dragging it several hundred metres down the track, reports said. No one on the train was hurt. More than 30 people travelling on the bus were taken to a nearby hospital.
The bride and the groom were travelling separately and were not hurt. The accident happened at about 0200 (2030 GMT Wednesday).
The bus, carrying up to 100 wedding guests, had come to a halt at the crossing after its axle broke, and it was then hit by the train, local administrator Selva Kumar said.
People sitting on the roof of the bus were thrown off and seriously injured while those inside were crushed, sources told BeyondHeadlinesfrom the spot.
One of the injured told the source that he had been sitting on the roof of the bus when he saw the train coming towards them. He said he tried to warn the driver, who did not appear to hear him.
“Talking to the survivors, it seems the bus driver must have either not seen the signal or not heard the train when he decided to attempt the crossing,” SK Seth, chief of a local hospital where the injured have been admitted, told the AFP news agency.
Train accidents are common in India, which has one of the world’s busiest rail networks. In May last year, more than 100 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound express train jumped off the tracks into the path of an oncoming goods train in West Bengal. The tracks had been apparently sabotaged by Maoist rebels.
And in July 2010, more than 60 people were killed when a speeding passenger express hit another train waiting at a station in West Bengal.
