CALCUTTA, 20 July 2004 — Forty people were killed yesterday when a crowded bus shot off a highway in torrential rains and plunged into a water-filled ditch in the West Bengal state, police said.
The bus skidded off the road mid-morning in the town of Laxmipur, 355 kilometers (221 miles) from the state capital Calcutta, police spokesman Sandanu Kar said.
“The bus sank in the ditch filled up by monsoon rains,” state police Inspector General Chayan Mukherjee added.
Mukherjee said local rescuers pulled 35 bodies from the bus, which had also overturned. They were working to remove the rest of the bodies.
The driver, who was racing at “breakneck” speed in blinding rains, was arrested, he said. Some 15 other people were injured in the crash, he said.
“Most of the injured became unconscious as the bus sank. Their condition is critical,” he said. “We fear the death toll may cross 45.”
The official estimated some 60 people were traveling on the rush-hour bus.
“One cannot have the exact number of passengers as a number of people sit on the roofs of buses or stand on the footboards.
“Normally buses become crowded with office-bound people by the morning peak period,” he said.
