The death toll in Tuesday's bus tragedy in Telangana rose to 61 with three passengers succumbing to their injuries on Wednesday.
As many as 58 people were killed when an overcrowded bus of state-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) plunged into a gorge near Kondagattu in Jagtial district, about 190 km from Hyderabad, on Tuesday.
Two injured succumbed at a hospital in Karimnagar on Wednesday night while one person succumbed earlier in the day.
According to officials, close to 40 injured were still undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Jagtial, Karimnagar and Hyderabad.
The bus, carrying close to 100 passengers, fell into the gorge when the driver lost control at a speed breaker. Brake failure is suspected to be the cause of what is believed to be the worst-ever bus accident in the country.
The state government has suspended depot manager of TSRTC's Jagtial depot for alleged negligence and ordered a thorough probe.
T Krishna Prasad, the DGP and Chairman of the Road Safety Authority, Telangana, who visited the spot and conducted a preliminary investigation, told TNM earlier, that multiple accidents had taken place on the ghat road.
"The incident happens to be a combination of different factors. The first one was overloading. The road itself was not safe in the sense that the gradient is too high, particularly for a heavy vehicle that was coming down. There are sharp turns and ditches in 5 to 6 places. There is another road which is about 10 km longer, but people take this road as a shortcut," Prasad said.
"In fact, the local authorities had put height restricting barricades to discourage RTC buses and trucks from travelling on this particular road, but maybe due to local demand and public pressure, it was removed a few years ago," he added.
Meanwhile, a lawyer on Wednesday approached State Human Rights Commission, seeking direction to police to book cases of culpable homicide against the officials whose negligence led to the accident.
Arun Kumar, a High Court lawyer, also sought Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia each for the families of the dead.
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IANS inputs