At least 20 people were killed and 35 injured on Thursday in separate traffic accidents in India, news reports said Thursday, according to dpa. A bus carrying 34 passengers from New Delhi and bound for a popular cave shrine in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state lost control while negotiating a bend and fell into a gorge in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh, killing 12 and injuring 21, reported news agency PTI. Eleven passengers died on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, while one of the passengers is missing, a senior police official said, adding that the accident took place in Dharamsala, about 280 kilometres north of Himachal's capital Shimla. Eight people were killed in north-eastern state Tripura when a jeep carrying passengers coming back from a marriage ceremony and a car collided head-on, reported news agency IANS. The accident, which injured 14, took place near the state capital Agartal. In 2006 about 2,500 people died in accidents in Himachal Pradesh, while Tripura recorded about 500 deaths due to road accidents. More than 110,000 people are killed in traffic accidents in India annually, mostly due to negligence by drivers. The country has one of the highest fatality rates in the world. As per official figures the cost of road accidents is estimated in the range of one to three per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
