Wedding Carnage on India’s Bloody Roads

Forty-three people were killed and seven injured as they made their way home from a wedding in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, the Times of India reports. The accidents were caused by a combination of heavy rains and "human error."

The paper quoted Himachal transport minister Mohinder Singh as saying that more than 40 people, including children, comprising a marriage party, were travelling from Chaura to Sherpur in a truck around midnight when, about two km short of a village, Sherpur, the heavy vehicle swerved off the road and fell into a deep gorge. Thirty-four people, all men and children, were killed on the spot.

The other tragedy, which claimed nine lives, occurred around 65km away when a Scorpio ferrying employees of a private firm after night shift careened off the road and rolled into a ditch near Bharmaur in the wee hours today, writes the Telegraph.

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to the World Health Organization, with accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads, writes AFP. About 125,000 people or about 350 a day died on the country's notoriously dangerous roads in 2009, according to the latest statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).