6 children killed in Himachal bus accident

Shimla : Six schoolchildren were killed and twelve injured when a school bus fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district on Saturday.

The dead include six schoolchildren and the driver of the bus. Twelve children have been injured. The accident took place in the Renuka area near Dadahu

The dead are between the ages of 4 and 14 years.

The children were students at a local school and it was the last day in school.There were 17 children in the bus.The accident took place around 8 am.

Seven of the seriously injured schoolchildren have been admitted at PGI Chandigarh,reports said the ambulance carrying them had a brief breakdown on way to Chandigarh.

The global road safety body IRF head KK Kapila has expressed concern at the heavy bus accident.”The hill roads in India are prone to regular road accidents, a lot needs to be done to ensure road safety in the hills,” said Kapila.

“There is a need for safer hill roads,installation of crash barriers and separate tough driving licences for hill drivers besides tough vehicle norms,” Kapila said.