Bus, van collide on road in northern India, killing 34

12/26/2010

LUCKNOW, India — A bus collided head-on with a van that was carrying mourners returning from a funeral in northern India, killing 34 people, police said Sunday.

State police official D.Y.S. Chauhan said another 14 people in the two vehicles were injured in the accident Saturday near Badaun, a town in Uttar Pradesh state.

The bus driver was among those killed, he said.

Chauhan said Sunday that the van's driver lost control of the vehicle as it went through a mound of sand. It then crashed into the bus.

Badaun is 175 miles (280 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the state capital.

India, with the world's second-largest population, has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to the World Health Organization.

More than 110,000 people die each year in India in road accidents caused by speeding, bad roads, overcrowding and poor vehicle maintenance, according to police.