At least 12 people were killed and 21 injured on Thursday when a bus carrying passengers on a pilgrimage fell into a gorge in India's northern state Himachal Pradesh, reports said. The bus, carrying 34 passengers, all from Delhi, was on its way to a popular cave shrine site in the Indian-administered state Jammu and Kashmir when the driver lost control while negotiating a curve near Dharamsala, 280 kilometers north of from Himachal's capital Shimla. Eleven passengers died on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, while one of the passengers is missing, a senior police official told The Press Trust of India (PTI). In 2006, about 2,500 people died in accidents in Himachal Pradesh. More than 110,000 people are killed in the traffic accidents in India annually, one of the highest fatality rates in the world. As per official figures the cost of road accidents is estimated in the range one to three per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
