03/28/96 - 11:29 AM ET - Five Americans killed in bus accident
NEW DELHI, India - A bus carrying American college students rolled into a ditch on the way to the Taj Mahal Thursday, killing five Americans, the U.S. Embassy said.
Four other students were hospitalized.
United News of India said the bus overturned in the ditch as it was trying to pass another vehicle. The Indian bus driver and a tour guide also were killed in the accident in northern India.
There were 30 people on the bus - 27 Americans, the Indian guide and two Indian drivers.
The bus crashed around midnight near Bhimnagar, a village 15 miles north of Agra, where the 17th century monument to love is located. The wounded were taken to an Agra hospital.
Rescuers had to slice off the roof of the bus, lying on its side, to reach passengers, according to the Amar Ujala, a newspaper published in Agra. The newspaper quoted witnesses as saying the bus was going too fast and the driver lost control on a bend.
Police said the bus was coming from New Delhi, 187 miles west of Agra. It was part of a larger group of American college students traveling to the Taj Mahal in two buses. The second bus, with 31 people on board, continued to the monument, unaware of the accident, the newspaper said.
Ken Service, a spokesman for the University of Pittsburgh, said the students were part the university's Semester at Sea program, for which they received college credit.
The group had traveled to India earlier this month by ship to the southern city of Madras, an embassy official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
They apparently were traveling in rivate buses.
The dead students were were identified as Cherese Laulhere of Long Beach, Calif.; Jennifer Druck, also of California; Sarah Schewe of Amherst, Mass.; and Virginia Amato of Metairie, La.
Service identified the fifth victim was identified as John Wilson, of Pittsburgh, the husband of an educator at the University of Pittsburgh.
Schewe, 20, was a student at Georgetown University, said a spokeswoman for the University of Massachusetts. It was not immediately known where the other victims were studying.
By The Associated PressCNN Bus crash kills U.S. students in India
March 28, 1996 Web posted at: 12:05 p.m. EST (1705 GMT)
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A bus crash in India Thursday killed four American students and the husband of an educator at the University of Pittsburgh, a university spokesman said.
Ken Service said the dead students were among 60 American students from the university's "Semester at Sea" program who were en route to the Taj Mahal. Four injured students were hospitalized in Agra. There were 30 people on the bus. A second bus continued on to Agra, unaware of the accident.
The Indian wire service ANI reported that the driver of the bus and a tour guide also died. The news service quotes local police as saying the driver lost control of the bus while trying to overtake another vehicle, went off the road into a gorge and crashed into a tree north of Agra.
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi identified the dead students as Cherese Laulhere of Long Beach, California; Jennifer Druck of Belmer, California; Sarah Schewe of Amherst, Massachusetts; and Virginia Amato of Metairie, Louisiana. The faculty member was identified as John Wilson of Pittsburgh.
The U.S. Embassy has established a help line for relatives of people involved with the "Semester at Sea" program. That overseas number is 011-91-11-611-3033.