The bus was said to have been carrying 34 male and 10 female passengers until it reached Kalikasthan. More passengers were then added both inside the bus and on the roof. The 34-seat bus belonging to Pasang Lhamu Transportation was weighed down with around 90 passengers when it met with the accident while attempting to make a turning in the narrow road, according to DSP Avadhesh Bista of District Police Office (DPO), Rasuwa. The incident site is 12 kilometers south of Dhunche, the district headquarters.
Among the deceased are VDC secretary of Dhaibung, Tikam Bahadur Shahi, bus driver Bharat Gurung of Nuwakot, Deepa Chimoriya, 29, of Gadhimai, Bara, and a seven-year-old girl, Nyima Tashi Tamang, of Goljung VDC, Rasuwa. The identities of the others are yet to be ascertained, according to the DPO.
"A total of 35 people, including those whose identity has been ascertained, died in the accident," informed Police Inspector Shree Shankar Shrestha. "We are not able to identify the others as their kin have yet to arrive here," he added. Most of the passengers were said to be from Rasuwa.
Police said 52 passengers were also injured in the accident. Among the critically injured, 16 have been airlifted to Teaching Hospital in the capital while two others were taken there by ambulance, according to Rasuwa Chief District Officer (CDO) Shiva Ram Gelal.
Twenty-two of the injured are currently undergoing treatment at Rasuwa Hospital while the remaining were taken to Trishuli Hospital in Nuwakot. Some of them were later referred to facililties in Kathmandu.
"The bus was very old and could not have sustained such a load of passengers," said DSP Bista. The road was rendered narrower by landslides a few weeks ago.
Passengers are forced to make perilous journeys in overcrowded vehicles as only a limited number of vehicles are in operation due to the ongoing fuel crisis created by the Indian blockade.
"Although the route from Kalikasthan has been in operation since 1984, no human causalities had occurred here," said Babu Lal Tamang, a civil society leader in Rasuwa. "This is the highest number of human causalities in a road accident in the district."
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