Injured receive treatment at a government hospital after a bus carrying Vaishno Devi shrine pilgrims met with an accident, in Jammu, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Credit: PTI Photo
Srinagar: At least 15 pilgrims were injured when the driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle, near the Jumbo Zoo area in the Nagrota area of Jammu district on Tuesday while en route to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra.
Officials confirmed that the vehicle carrying the pilgrims met with an accident on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Nagrota. The crash left 15 people, including three children and two women, with varying degrees of injury.
Immediately after the incident, the injured were rushed to Government Medical College Jammu hospital for treatment, where their condition is stated to be stable.
Road accidents have become a bigger killer than militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and according to official records, 9,070 deaths were reported in a decade due to “rash or negligent driving” which is five times more than the toll from terrorism.
J&K’s difficult terrains and rapidly increasing vehicle numbers exacerbate road safety risks. In Jammu and Kashmir, successive governments have laid ambitious plans to better road connectivity. However, old timers say they have seen the same roads with the same dimensions in the last 50 years, despite an ever-increasing traffic volume.