New Delhi: 18 people were killed and 81 others wounded as a result of road accidents in northwest India.
In the first incident, 10 people were killed and 55 others were injured after a two-story bus in a narrow corridor skidded off the road in a deep valley and hit the cement wall of a bridge on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in northern India's Jammu and Kashmir region.
Indian police said the bus was carrying more passengers than the prescribed limit, causing the bus to slip off the road.
In another incident, eight people were killed and 26 others were injured after a tractor vehicle fell into a 100-foot corridor in the Jhunjhunu Valley, the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan.
Tens of thousands die in traffic accidents in India every year, with official statistics last year indicating that about 135 thousand people die in traffic accidents annually in the country, and India ranks second globally after China in terms of the highest number of fatal traffic accidents.
