Road accident in northern India kills 17 workers

[News_Editor]

Road accident in northern India kills 17 workers

2012-02-15 16:51:04 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW DELHI, INDIA (BNO NEWS) -- Seventeen people were killed on early Tuesday afternoon when their truck plunged down a gorge in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, police said on Wednesday. Two others survived the accident.

The accident happened at around 12:45 p.m. local time when the vehicle skidded off an icy road and fell down a 200 feet (61 meters) deep gorge in Kinnaur district. The seventeen victims, who were involved in road construction, died at the scene of the accident, according to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

"Since it was snowing heavily in Pooh, the laborers were sent back to their base camp in Spillo. When they were returning, their vehicle met with an accident at 12.45 p.m.," Superintendent of Police Veena Bharti told IANS. Two survivors were admitted to a nearby hospital.

The victims all worked for the General Engineering Reserve Force, a wing of the Border Roads Organization which maintains the roads passing through rugged Himalayan ranges. They had left Spillo for the town of Pooh for work.

The entire Kinnaur district, one of the most remote places in the state, has been experiencing heavy snowfall this week.

India, the world's second most populous nation, is often the scene of deadly road accidents, many of which are attributed to reckless driving, aging vehicles and overloading. In new figures released in 2010, India overtook China to top the world in road fatalities.

According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, approximately 120,000 people are killed in road accidents in India each year. Deaths as the result of road accidents account for up to 40 percent of the country's deaths due to unnatural causes.

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