New Delhi - At least 32 farm workers were killed and 16 hurt when an overloaded truck carrying them plunged into a small river in India's eastern state of Bihar, police said Sunday. The accident occurred as the vehicle carrying 70 workers veered off a curve in Lakhisarai district some 150 kilometres south-east of the state capital Patna on Saturday night.
A police spokesman said the workers were returning home to the nearby Khagaria district with sacks of food grain they earned as wages.
"The driver lost control of the truck as it hit a potholed stretch of road near the curve, causing the vehicle to fall into the Gorhi river," Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police SP Shukla said.
"There was some confusion in the death toll earlier, but after completion of rescue and relief work by Sunday noon, police have counted 32 bodies at the accident site and hospitals," Shukla said.
Most of the accident victims died after being crushed beneath the truck and sacks of grain when the truck overturned. There was little water in the river, he said.
The injured were moved to a government-run hospital in the nearby Jamui district.
"Of the 16 injured 13 had sustained minor injuries and were discharged after being administered first-aid. Three others were being treated at the hospital," Jamui police chief Vinay Kumar said.
It was the second major road crash in India in the past few days. On July 31, 33 Nepalese pilgrims were killed in a similar accident in the northern mountainous state of Uttarakhand.
In all, more than 95,000 people are killed in road crashes every year in India, many of them in mountainous areas. The death toll is among the highest in the world.
