45 dead as bus plunges into Tons river in Himachal Pradesh

Forty-four passengers were killed as a private bus fell into the Tons river near Chopal in Himachal Pradesh. Authorities are yet to ascertain what caused the accident.

Forty-five passengers were killed on Wednesday when a private bus fell into the Tons river, a tributary of the Yamuna, near Chopal, 95 km from Shimla.

A bus carrying around 50 passengers plunged into the Tons river in Himachal Pradesh, killing 45 on board. (HT Photo)

The bus — bearing Uttarakhand registration number and carrying 47 passengers — was on its way from Vikasnagar to Tiuni in Dehradun district. The route passes through Himachal Pradesh. Among the dead 31 are male, 10 women and four girls.

As per sources, two people, including the conductor of the bus, jumped out seconds before the bus plunged into the river. The accident spot, 12 km from the Uttarakhand border, is near Gumma in Nerva tehsil, some 190 km from the state capital. It is one of the remotest places in the state.

“The terrain where the accident occurred is very tough. Without a probe, it’s difficult to say whether the accident happened due to human error or mechanical failure,” said Shimla deputy commissioner Rohan Chand Thakur .

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of each of those killed.

State Disaster Response Force at the accident site. The passengers on the private bus were travelling from Vikasnagar to Dehradun in Uttarakhand, going on a route that touches the Himachal Pradesh border.

Naresh Chauhan, the only surviving passenger, claimed that one of the leaf springs of the bus snapped just prior to the accident.

He said that at one point when the driver applied the brakes on a turn, the bus tilted. “Sensing that the bus was about to overturn, I jumped out,” he added.

Shimla SP DW Negi said all bodies, which were badly mutilated, have been recovered and process was on to identify them.

Eyewitnesses said the administration had a tough time in extracting the bodies of the victims from the mangled remains of the bus, though villagers began the rescue operation even before the authorities could reach the accident spot.

“We heard a loud thud and saw the bus rolling down into the river,” said a local Santosh Kumar.

It took hours for rescuers and police to climb down the mountain and bring up the bodies.