Death toll in India truck-train collision rises to 15

Nov 2, 2009, 11:38 GMT

   New Delhi - Four more people who were injured in a train-truck collision in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh died in hospital, raising the death toll in the accident to 15, officials said Monday.

   The accident occurred Sunday afternoon when the passenger train rammed into a truck at an unmanned railway crossing in the Gonda district, 125 kilometres north-east of the state capital, Lucknow.

   'While 11 people died on the scene, four more passengers succumbed to their injuries since Sunday night,' senior administration official Sukhlal Bharti told reporters.

   The victims were 13 train passengers, the truck driver and his helper. More than 30 injured were admitted at local hospitals for treatment.

   There are frequent collisions between vehicles and trains at India's many unmanned railway crossings.

   Railway officials, however, claimed that the number of accidents has come down to an average of 190 from 325 a year in the past five years.

   Indian Railways operates one of the largest rail networks in the world. Its 8,500 trains carry 16 million passengers over a 63,000- kilometre rail network every day.