New Delhi, Feb 15 (EFE).- At least 10 people died and another 19 were injured after a car collided with a bus in northern India late Friday.
The accident occurred at midnight on a highway that connects Mirzapur and Prayagraj, where the massive Hindu festival Maha Kumbh Mela has been underway since Jan. 13 and where the car was headed.
The bodies of the deceased were transferred to a nearby hospital in Prayagraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Yamuna Nagar) Vivek Chandra Yadav said, local news agency ANI reported.
Traffic accidents in India are frequent due to the poor condition of the roads, the precarious condition of vehicles and the lack of compliance with traffic rules by drivers.
In recent days, the organizers of the Mela have banned vehicular traffic in the festival area after thousands of people were stuck in multiple traffic jams even more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from Prayagraj, with some drivers saying that they needed up to 12 hours to cover 50 kilometers.
The delays were especially long in the vicinity of Prayagraj, where according to data from Google Maps, there were 15-kilometer traffic jams that delayed the arrival of the devotees by more than two-and-a-half hours.
Train tickets have been sold out since before the start of the Hindu festival while the cost of plane tickets has multiplied, leading millions of people to opt to travel by car.
The Kumbh Mela, which is held at the confluence of the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, as well as the mythological Saraswati, until Feb. 26, has already drawn more than 500 million devotees.
This year’s edition of the festival, which is held every 12 years in Prayagraj, was marked by the death of 30 people in a stampede on Jan. 29, the most auspicious day for holy baths. EFE
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