# Bus plunges into gorge in Himachal Pradesh, killing 14
Fourteen people were killed and more than 30 others injured when a private bus fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district, according to the Hindustan Times report citing officials and rescue workers. The bus was travelling from Shimla to Kupvi via Rajgarh when it went off the road near Haripurdhar village and plunged about 500 feet into the gorge.
The crash happened on Friday afternoon, about 95 kilometres from the district headquarters in Nahan. Officials said the bus had a seating capacity of 39 passengers and appeared to have been overloaded, although the exact number of people on board had not yet been confirmed. The vehicle landed upside down at the bottom of the ravine.
Sangrah Sub-Divisional Magistrate Sunil Kayath said rescue operations were under way on a war footing. Injured passengers were moved to hospitals in Sangrah and Dadahu, while emergency teams, police officers and district administration staff worked at the site alongside local residents who joined the effort to pull survivors out of the wreckage.
The report said the cause of the accident had not yet been determined. Locals at the scene suspected the driver may have lost control because of frost on the road, which could have caused the bus to skid before it went over the edge. That explanation had not been officially confirmed, and investigators were still assessing what happened.
The tragedy drew a quick response from India’s political leadership. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences and announced ex-gratia payments from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund: ₹2 lakh for the next of kin of each person killed and ₹50,000 for those injured. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also expressed sorrow and directed district authorities to help the affected families and ensure medical treatment.
The scale of the disaster made it one of the deadliest road accidents reported in the region in recent months. Videos circulated on social media showing residents helping carry injured passengers up the steep slope from the crash site. With the bus body resting inverted at the bottom of the gorge, the scene reflected the difficulty of reaching victims in mountainous terrain where even a short delay can worsen outcomes.
The event date for the crash was January 9, 2026.
For the families involved, the immediate priorities were rescue, identification and treatment. For officials, the focus shifted to whether speed, road conditions, overloading or another factor turned an ordinary mountain journey into a mass-casualty crash.
