NEW DELHI , India (AFP) — At least 13 people died and 53 others were injured after a bus skidded off a bridge and overturned in northeast India, media quoted police as saying.
The bus was travelling from Jharkhand state to Raipur, state capital of Chhattisgarh, when it came off the road at around 10.30 pm local time (1700 GMT) on Wednesday, national news agency Press Trust of India reported.
The driver saw a motorcycle at a sharp bend and swerved to avoid him but lost control of the wheel, causing the bus to come off the bridge and flip over two or three times, local police superintendent Sadanand Kumar told PTI.
Of those injured, 16 were in a critical condition, he added.
Fatal traffic accidents are common in India, which has some of the world’s deadliest roads with more than 200,000 fatalities annually, according to the World Health Organization.
Last month, a bus carrying performing artists plunged 76 metres (250 feet) into a gorge in the east of the country, killing at least 27 people, including a child.
And in February, a packed passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river in western India, killing at least 37 people in one of the country’s deadliest road accidents in recent years.
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