At least 22 people were killed and several others critically injured when a Tripura-bound bus fell into a deep gorge in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia hills district in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The incident took place sometime between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. at Tamseng village near the Meghalaya-Aassam border.
The bus was on its way to Agartala from Guwahati when it fell into the 80-feet deep gorge.
“We have been able to retrieve 22 bodies even as six critically injured persons were shifted to Khliehriat community health centre”, district police chief M.K. Dkhar said.
“There are possibilities of more deaths and the district police and fire service personnel are on the job to rescue the trapped persons in the bus”, he said.
The depth of the gorge is over 80 feet.
Keywords: Meghalaya bus accident, East Jaintia hills
Accidents in inter-state highways in the NE isn't new. Potholes, curvy nature of the roads, landslide and many other factors make the NE highways highly prone to accidents. People do see the risk of traveling by bus, but where there is no railway, they have no other options in order to avert the high fare of flight tickets.....
Very sad news.
How many more lives will be lost before we take road safety seriously?
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