Oct 13, 2008 9:15 pm US/Central
Bus Crash Kills 23 In Northeastern India
GAUHATI, India (AP) ―
An overcrowded, speeding bus crashed into a stationary truck in northeastern India on Tuesday, killing 23 people and wounding 44 others, police said.
The bus was carrying laborers to work before dawn in the Dhubri district of India's Assam state, some 185 miles west of the state capital, Gauhati.
"The bus carrying 67 passengers hit a stationary potato-laden truck with great speed, leading to the fatalities," said Dhubri police chief Parthasarathi Mahanta.
Mahanta said the driver of the bus, which was supposed to hold just 35 passengers, lost control and collided with the parked truck, reducing both vehicles to "a mass of mangled steel."
The injured have been taken to hospitals, he said.
Deadly road accidents are common in India, often caused by aging vehicles, overloading and reckless driving.
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