Northern India road mishap leaves 13 people dead, 8 injured

At least 13 people were killed and eight others were seriously injured when their vehicle fell into a deep gorge in northern Indian state of Uttrakhand, police said Tuesday. The police said the driver of the overloaded jeep lost control of the vehicle in the hilly Gir village in Pithoragarh district of Uttrakhand and fell into a deep gorge. The police said the injured, some of them were in critical condition, have been rushed to hospital for treatment. The preliminary report blames overloading and bad road conditions as the major cause of accident. Earlier, at least 42 people died when the bus they were travelling in caught fire in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the government's National Crime Records Bureau, more than 130, 000 people died in road accidents in India in 2011; bad driving is the main culprit.