At least 29 passengers of a double-decker heading to Delhi were killed after it veered off an express highway into a 40-feet (12 meter) deep water drain early Monday morning. The driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel.
The bus with some 50 people on board was travelling from the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, to Delhi, when it mounted the divider and fell into a pit between two lanes of Yamuna Expressway at around 4:00 local time am Monday.
यमुना एक्सप्रेसवे पर आज सुबह हुई बस दुर्घटना में दिवंगत आत्मा की शांति के लिए प्रार्थना करते है तथा शोक संतप्त परिजनों के प्रति हमारी संवेदना है। हम घायलों के शीघ्र स्वास्थ्य लाभ की कामना भी करते हैं। बचाव कार्य युद्ध स्तर पर किए गए तथा घायलों को अस्पताल भेजा गया है। pic.twitter.com/tt14NIZtgk
— AGRA POLICE (@agrapolice) July 8, 2019
A video of the rescue operation shows the bus half-submerged in the water. Police said that about 15 or 16 people were pulled out alive from the wreckage and taken to hospitals. The rescuers used tractors to lift the bus from the water, hoping to find survivor in the soaked debris.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the driver lost control of the vehicle after he nodded off at the wheel.
“It appears that the driver was sleepy while driving. Till now 29 people have been declared dead and a rescue operations is underway,” said district magistrate of Agra, NG Ravi Kumar, as cited by News18.
The Uttar Pradesh government announced it would pay compensations to the families of the deceased.
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