A bus has smashed into a bridge and plunged into a river in India, killing at least 16 people after the driver lost control of the vehicle, police say.
Another three people were in critical condition after the bus, carrying 35 people, veered off the bridge in the mountainous northern state of Uttarakhand.
“The bus collided with the bridge and overturned” into a small river, police officer Mukhtaar Hasan said on Saturday. Some of the victims appeared to have drowned, police said.
The accident occurred in Juyalgarh village, some 150km from state capital Dehradun.
India has the highest number of road accidents globally, with 138,000 recorded in 2012, the latest year for which official government figures are available.
Transport analysts attribute the huge number of accidents to poor roads, ill-trained drivers and reckless driving.
Meanwhile, at least 19 people have been killed in Peru when a small bus taking them to a religious festival plunged 200m off a mountain road, police say.
They said 12 other people were injured in the accident on Friday night in the southeastern Apurimac region on a treacherous section of highway known as “the seven turns.”
“So far, the 19 victims have been recovered and the injured are being taken to the regional hospital,” police captain Fernando Bolanos told reporters on Saturday.
The bus was carrying passengers from Puquio to the town of Chalhuanca to attend a religious festival near Cusco known as the Lord of Huanca, which each year draws thousands of pilgrims from around the country.
Bolanos said the cause of the accident was under investigation, but preliminary indications were that the driver was speeding.
Fatal road accidents are common in Peru, in part because of lax traffic enforcement but also because of the country’s challenging mountain terrain, with its many sharp curves and steep precipices.
More than 2500 people were killed in road accidents in 2013, according to official statistics.
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