Key points
- Victims were travelling to a shrine during Shravan festival
- India reported over 172,000 road deaths in 2023
ISLAMABAD: At least 18 people lost their lives in eastern India on Tuesday after a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims collided with a lorry transporting cooking gas cylinders, according to officials.
Footage from the crash site in Jharkhand state showed the bus’s twisted wreckage, with the rear section almost entirely destroyed by fire, according to Arab News.
Local MP Nishikant Dubey stated that the victims were on a pilgrimage to a Hindu shrine in observance of Shravan, a sacred month marking the beginning of the monsoon season in the region.
“Eighteen devotees died in a collision between a bus and a lorry,” Dubey said on social media.
मेरे लोकसभा के देवघर में श्रावण मास में कांवर यात्रा के दौरान बस और ट्रक के दुर्घटनाग्रस्त होने के कारण 18 श्रद्धालुओं की मौत हो गई है । बाबा बैद्यनाथ जी उनके परिजनों को दुख सहने की शक्ति प्रदान करें
— Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) July 29, 2025
The pilgrims had collected holy water from the River Ganges to offer to Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
India’s road fatalities
India continues to face a high number of road fatalities each year.
Official figures show that more than 172,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2023, according to Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
In a similar incident last November, a bus plunged into a deep gorge in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, resulting in the deaths of at least 36 passengers and leaving many others injured.
