MARGANETS, Ukraine: A bus packed with rush-hour commuters crashed into a train at a level crossing in Ukraine Tuesday after jumping a red light, killing 43 people and leaving a scene of carnage. The bus was crushed and then shunted at high speed further down the track before the train came to a halt near the village of Marganets in the Dnipropetrovsk region of central Ukraine. Forty-three people were killed and nine remain hospitalized after the disaster, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the main regional center of Dnipropetrovsk, the emergencies ministry said. Anguished relatives struggled to contain their grief at the scene, where the wreckage of the yellow bus was still wrapped round the front of the train. “Mother, where have you gone!” a young woman around 30 years old yelled between sobs over a body lying on the ground. The bodies were laid side by side on the bank of the railway as people searched for their loved ones among the dead. Officials looked through the identification documents on the bodies laid out by the tracks, calling out names, drawing weeping cries of grief. President Viktor Yanukovych, who was in the region's main center of Dnipropetrovsk for a meeting on economic reform, declared a day of national mourning Wednesday in honor of the victims. “When a driver jumps a red light, he must see a psychiatrist,” added Yanukovych, who visited the scene of the tragedy, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
