NEW DELHI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed and more than 40 others injured after a private bus crashed into two cars before plunging into a 20-feet deep ditch on Mumbai-Pune Expressway in India Sunday morning, a senior police official said.
"The accident took place around 5:30 a.m. (local time) when the speeding bus rammed into a car that had stopped on the side of the high-speed corridor to help the driver of another car that had also stopped to replace a flat tyre," he said, on condition of anonymity.
What followed was a disaster. The bus did not come to a halt after hitting the first stationery car and it went on to hit the other vehicle that had a deflated tyre, before careening into the 20-feet deep ditch on the left side of the expressway.
"While 17 people, including a six-month-old infant died on the spot, those injured have been admitted to local hospitals where the condition of a few are said to be serious. The victims were mostly passengers of the ill-fated bus," the police official said.
Local TV channels showed footage of the mangled remains of the three vehicles and reported, quoting eye-witnesses, that the bus bus driver may have failed to see the tail-lights of the cars owing to a cloudy morning.
However, a probe has been ordered into the incident, the official added.
India records the highest number of road accidents in the world, with WHO figures indicating that over 200,000 people get killed every year.
