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One female student died and 60 others sustained serious injuries when the school bus on which they were travelling veered off the road and landed in a ditch at Osubeto along the Koforidua-Mamfe road last Friday. The 16-year-old student, identified as Harriet Osei, fell off and was trapped under the 30-seater Tata Eicher bus belonging to the Kwabeng Senior High Technical School when the bus was negotiating a sharp curve on a steep portion on the road about 7 p.m. Injuries The injured were rushed to the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua for treatment. Thirty-three of the students were treated and discharged, while 27, who are in critical condition, are on admission at the hospital. The body of the deceased has been deposited at the morgue of the same hospital. Returning from excursion According to the Eastern Regional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), Chief Superintendent Samuel Tetteh, the Geography students were returning from an excursion to the Boti Falls in the Eastern Region. A teacher is said to have told them to proceed to the Presbyterian College of Education at Akropong-Akuapem to observe a huge rock on the campus of the college. The driver, therefore, used the Nkurakan-Adukrom road from Huhunya, where the Boti Falls is located, to Akropong-Akuapem and decided to return to Kwabeng by way of the Mamfe-Koforidua road. He said the driver of the bus, with registration number GV 946 Z, was descending a hilly portion of the road when the bus veered off the road into a ditch. Students rescued The bus, he said, landed on the driver's off-side, causing severe injuries to the 60 students. However, Harriet fell through one of the windows and got trapped under the bus, dying instantly. With the help of residents of the area, the injured students were rescued from the bus, while Harriet�s body was pulled from under the bus. Overloaded school bus Chief Supt Tetteh said when the police were informed about the accident, they rushed to the scene to take the victims to the hospital. "The driver of the bus was not familiar with the road and that could be the cause of the accident," he said. According to him, the school bus was meant to take 30 students but was overloaded with 60 students.