Uttar Pradesh bus
Commuters including school boys travel on a crowded passenger bus during morning rush hours at Khurja village located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Sep.13, 2011. REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma

At least 15 children have been killed in an accident in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after their school bus rammed into a truck Thursday morning. The incident is the latest in the country that has a poor track record of road safety.

The victims have been identified as students of JS Public School in Aliganj in Etah, about 142 miles east of state capital Lucknow. Over dozen other wounded students were rushed to a local hospital.

The driver of the bus, which was reportedly carrying over 50 students, was also killed.

“School was open against the order of district administration to close schools due to cold. 15 children died. Priority is to rescue trapped children. Rescue operation is underway. Strict action will be taken against the school,” said Javeed Ahmed, director general of police in Uttar Pradesh, according to local news website News18.com.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav offered condolences and directed district officials to visit the accident scene.

“Many children are seriously injured,” local police official Daljeet Chaudhary said, according to NDTV. “We will take action if anyone found at fault.”

The cause of the crash is not known yet. However, local reports, which cited witnesses, said that thick fog due to the cold weather is likely to be the reason behind the accident.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered their condolences.

Road accidents are not uncommon in India. According to the latest government data, more than 400 people were killed in road accidents daily in 2015. In total, 150,000 people died that year in such incidents. And in the past decade, road accidents have claimed lives of over 1.3 million people in the country.

In 2015, India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reportedly said that it “wanted to change the entire architecture over road transport and road safety in the whole country, basically, setting up a set of authorities at the Central level and the State level to control all aspects of transport and public transport including driving licences.”

However, that did not come into effect because of concerns over “sharing of revenues between the Centre and the state,” according to the ministry.

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