Tag: bus accident

18 Dead, 19 Injured as Sleeper Bus Collides With Milk Tanker In Uttar Pradesh

The bus, which was travelling from Bihar to Delhi ended up colliding with the tanker while attempting to overtake.

New Delhi: A collision between a sleeper bus and a milk tanker in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday (July 10) morning resulted in the deaths of at least 18 people, while around 19 people sustained injuries.

The incident took place on the Lucknow-Agra expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, reported Hindustan Times.

Among the injured persons three were reported to be critical.

The bus, which was travelling from Bihar to Delhi ended up colliding with the tanker while attempting to overtake.

The bus overturned due to the impact of the collision.

Officials said that the bus was carrying mostly migrant workers.

The collision took place in the morning near Jojikot village in the Bangarmau area when the double-decker bus collided with the tanker, killing 18 people and injuring 19, Bangarmau Circle Officer Arvind Kumar said, reported the Press Trust of India.

Officials said that necessary action is being taken and the injured persons have been rushed to nearby hospitals.

Six Children Killed as School Bus Crashes into Tree in Haryana

The driver is believed to have been drunk. The Haryana government has ordered a probe into the incident.

New Delhi: Six children died when a school bus collided with a tree in Haryana’s Mahendragarh on Thursday morning (April 11).

A show-cause notice has been issued to the school and some other schools that remained open on Thursday despite a public holiday on account of Eid, news agency PTI reported.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government has ordered a probe into the incident.

According to NDTV, the driver is believed to have been drunk.

The bus was carrying students from classes 4 to 10. They were from to GL Public School.

At least 12 injured students have been admitted to a local hospital, the news outlet reported. Two others, who are said to be in a critical condition, have been moved to a Rohtak hospital, it said.

“We are investigating the drink driving claims and have conducted a medical test on the driver. The bus’s fitness certificate was not renewed,” senior police officer Arsh Verma told NDTV. Official documents show that the bus’s fitness certificate had expired six years ago in 2018.

Maharashtra: 25 Passengers Charred to Death in Bus Accident on Samruddhi Expressway in Buldhana

The tyre of the bus burst, causing the vehicle to collide with a pole and crash into a divider, ultimately catching fire.

New Delhi: Twenty-five passengers were charred to death after the bus they were travelling in caught fire after on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district on Saturday, July 1, PTI reported.

There were a total of 33 passengers on the bus. Eight of them survived the tragedy.

The private bus was on its way from Nagpur to Pune when it rammed into a divider around 1.30 am at Pimpalkhuta village near Sindkhedraja in Buldhana, around 134 kilometre from Nagpur, police told PTI.

The eight people who survived the tragedy included the bus driver and its cleaner. They told the police that they managed to come out of the burning vehicle through broken windows.

Buldhana Superintendent of Police Sunil Kadasne said that the eight passengers were taken to a nearby hospital and are safe.

The police added that the driver was being interrogated and the process of arresting him was underway.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has ordered a probe into the accident. He has announced an aid of Rs 5 lakh for the families of the deceased.


Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the bodies of the deceased were charred beyond recognition and if the identity of the victims is not established, then DNA testing will be conducted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and other leaders have expressed grief over the loss of lives.

The cause of the accident

PTI reported that the tyre of the bus burst, causing the vehicle to collide with a pole and crash into a divider, ultimately catching fire.

The bus belonging to Vidarbha Travels had left Nagpur for Pune at 4 pm on Friday. It stopped at Karanja in Yavatmal district for dinner but met with the accident some time after it resumed the journey, the police told the news agency.

“After hitting the divider, the bus fell on its right side with the entry/exit door of the bus facing the sky. Within minutes, the vehicle caught fire. Some of the passengers were able to come out of the broken windows from the rear side,” said a senior police official from Buldhana.

One of the survivors said, “A tyre of the bus burst and the vehicle caught fire immediately. The blaze spread in no time. A passenger sitting next to me and I managed to escape by breaking the rear window.”

A local resident, who rushed to the site, told PTI that the people who were able to come out of the bus later told him that they sought help from other vehicles on the highway, but nobody stopped.

Shinde termed the accident as “unfortunate” and stressed the need for drivers on the expressway to exercise caution while driving.

In a tweet, the prime minister’s office (PMO) said, “Deeply saddened by the devastating bus mishap in Buldhana, Maharashtra. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives. May the injured recover soon. The local administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.”

The PMO offered an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the relatives of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

Home minister Amit Shah described the accident as heartbreaking. “In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic accident,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Fadnavis told PTI that a smart system is being installed on the Samruddhi Expressway to prevent accidents. “The system will check the speed of the vehicles and alert them. But it will take some time. Till then, we will have to create awareness among drivers at the toll booths on what precautions need to be taken to prevent accidents at night,” he said.

PTI reported that he brushed aside criticism about the poor quality of construction of the expressway, saying, “Only vehicle error and human error have been noticed in the accidents that occurred on the expressway so far.”

Accidents on the Samruddhi Mahamarg 

The phase-I of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in December last year. It was claimed to be the longest expressway in the country.

Expressing grief over the tragedy, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said the government needs to take steps to curb the speed limit of private vehicles.

“The government should take immediate steps to prevent accidents,” he said, adding he had expressed concern over the number of accidents on the expressway just last week.

Between December 11, 2022 and April 30, 2023, 358 accidents were reported on the Samruddhi Mahamarg, of which 98 accidents were caused by highway hypnosis or sleepiness during driving, the Indian Express reported.

The newspaper cited data saying that 143 people were critically injured and 236 received minor injuries in the total 358 accidents that occurred on the Samruddhi Mahamarg.

After highway hypnosis, overspeeding and tyre bursting are the other two major causes of accidents on the Samruddhi Mahamarg, the report added.

Twelve Killed, Three Injured as Bus Falls Into Gorge in Himachal Pradesh

A relative of one of the deceased persons alleged callous attitude on the part of the authorities in rescuing the victims.

Shimla: Twelve passengers were killed and three others injured after a bus fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district on Monday, officials said.

Initial reports had put the death toll at 16.

The bus was on its way to Sainj from Shainsher when it fell into the gorge at a hairpin bend near Jangla village at around 8.30 am, the district officials added.

One of the deceased Jhablu Devi’s brother-in-law Tej Prakash alleged callous attitude on the part of the authorities in rescuing the victims.

“It took almost three hours to take Jhablu Devi from the accident site to the hospital. Had the administration acted swiftly, some lives could have been saved,” he said.

The dead have been identified as Tanu, Prem Chand, Fateh Chand, Anita Devi, Susheel Kumar, Khim Dasi, Roshi Devi, Parvati Devi, Jhablu Devi, Amit Kumar Rajak, Aaksh and Rakhi Maya.

Injured Mahender Singh, Sanjay Kumar and bus conductor Gopal have been admitted to the Kullu regional hospital for treatment.

The president and prime minister have condoled the loss of lives in the accident.

President Ram Nath Kovind said he was distressed to learn about the death of students and other people in the accident.

Condoling the loss of lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who have lost their lives in the incident.

The injured would be given Rs 50,000 each, the prime minister’s office said in a tweet.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur also expressed grief over the tragic bus accident.

Thakur said a magisterial inquiry has been ordered and the Kullu Additional District Magistrate will probe the whole incident.

The chief minister said Rs 5 lakh will be provided to the next of the kin of the each dead whereas Rs 15,000 will be provided as immediate relief to the each injured. He said free treatment will also be given to the injured persons.

(PTI)
This story, which was published on July 4 at 12:30 pm, is being republished with the updated death toll at 3:47 pm.

Himachal Pradesh: Eight Dead, 11 Injured as Bus Falls Into Gorge

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said he has ordered an inquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the accident, which occurred in Chamba district at 10:15 am.

Shimla: Eight people were killed and 11 others injured as a private bus fell into a deep gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district on Wednesday, police said.

The accident occurred in Teesa sub-division in the morning, Chamba superintendent of police S. Arul Kumar told PTI.

During the ongoing budget session of the state assembly, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur told the house in the afternoon that he has ordered an inquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.

Expressing grief over the deaths in the accident, the chief minister informed the house that eight people lost their lives as the bus fell into a gorge about 200 metres deep near Colony Morh in Teesa at 10:15 am.

The injured have been rushed to Medical College Chamba, Thakur said, adding that four of them are critical.

Madhya Pradesh: 37 Dead in Bus Accident Near Patna; Rescue Operation Underway

The bus landed into the canal near Patna village, around 80 km away from the Sidhi district headquarter, around 8:30 AM.

Sidhi/Rewa: At least 37 people, including 16 women, died after the bus they were travelling in fell off a bridge into a canal near Patna village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district on Tuesday morning, a senior official said, adding that search operations are still going on.

After fishing out 18 bodies initially, rescuers have retrieved 19 more bodies until now, said Rewa divisional commissioner Rajesh Jain.

“A total of 37 bodies, including 16 women, 20 men and a child, have been fished out of the Bansagar canal until now,” he said, adding that a magisterial probe has been ordered.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.

He tweeted that teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local authorities were conducting rescue operations at the spot.

Without specifying the number of the deceased, the chief minister said many “precious lives” were lost in the accident.

Prima facie, 44 passengers were travelling on the bus at the time of the accident, which occurred around 8:30 am.

“Seven persons managed to swim to the banks of the canal after the incident and 37 bodies have been recovered.

“The 44 passengers have been identified so far,” Jain added.

Earlier in the morning, inspector general (Rewa zone) Joga had confirmed the recovery of 18 bodies from the accident site.

The bus landed into the canal near Patna village, around 80 km away from the Sidhi district headquarter, around 8:30 am.

Chouhan has cancelled a mass house-warming ceremony to be attended virtually by Union home minister Amit Shah. Shah was scheduled to take part in this programme, scheduled to be held at 11 am in Minto Hall in Bhopal, for the beneficiaries of over one lakh houses constructed in Madhya Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

(PTI)

20 Dead After Kerala Bus Collides with Lorry in Tamil Nadu

According to reports, most of the passengers were from Palakkad, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts of Kerala.

Coimbatore/Thiruvananthapuram: Tragedy struck 48 passengers of a Kerala transport bus at Tirupur in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, when the vehicle collided with a lorry head-on, leaving at least 20 dead and many injured and was reduced to a heap of metal in the impact.

All the 20 were killed on the spot and six of the victims were women, police said. The crash happened at Avinashi town in Tirupur, 40 km from here.

The mangled remains of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus gave a picture of the severe hit it took after the container lorry entered the wrong lane and rammed into it.

The injured have been admitted to hospitals in Tirupur, while some have been referred to Coimbatore.

Most of the deceased have been identified, Palakkad Superintendent of Police Siva Vikram told PTI.

“It was a high-speed collision. The container lorry lost control. We do not know if the driver dozed off or the tire burst. The lorry entered the wrong lane and crashed into the KSRTC bus coming in the opposite direction,” he said adding “We are taking the names and details.”

Also read: Tamil Nadu: Mob Lynches Dalit Man for Defecating in the Open

The bus was proceeding to Thiruvananthapuram from Bengaluru, while the lorry was coming from the opposite direction on the Coimbatore-Salem Highway when the mishap occurred in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death of the victims and directed his cabinet colleagues – Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran and Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunilkumar to rush to Tamil Nadu to coordinate relief operations, the CMO said.

He also directed the Palakkad district collector to take necessary steps to provide medical aid to the injured and bring back the bodies of those hailing from Kerala, the Chief Minister’s Office said.co

The CMO said it was in regular touch with Tirupur district administration and efforts were on to identify the bodies.

According to reports, most of the passengers were from Palakkad, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts of Kerala.

Passengers, including women, who had a narrow escape from the tragedy, were yet to recover from the fact that many of their fellow travellers had lost their lives.

Karishma, who was on her way to Ernakulam, said she was seated on the left side of the bus and was sleeping when the accident occurred.

Also read: Weeks After Rape and Murder of Dalit Woman, Modasa Case Still Shrouded in Mystery

“When I woke up suddenly, I saw many people running around and the injured being taken in ambulances,” the shocked woman told media.

Alan, also from Kerala, said he was still finding it difficult to overcome the shock.

“I have sustained a minor injury on my leg. But my friend is injured on the nose and I am taking him to hospital,” he said.

Jemin George, an injured passenger, said he suffered a cut on his lips and an injury on the forehead that required 10 stitches.

“I didn’t know what exactly happened. I was sleeping in a seat behind the driver’s seat,” he said, adding, he was referred to a hospital in Coimbatore.

A weeping woman passenger said the container lorry was overloaded and there were not many vehicles on the road when the incident took place.

She said the right side of the bus was fully damaged.

In Dhaka, School Students Are Taking Law and Order Into Their Own Hands

After a road accident that killed two students, Dhaka’s teens have taken over the city’s streets to check drivers’ licences and impose traffic law to take on governmental apathy.

Dhaka: “Mercy?? No mercy today, no mercy tomorrow, no mercy for the next one year. Where was mercy when the two lives were killed? Only mercy to people who will abide rules. Saqib, take this driver to the police.” A tenth grader raised his voice in the middle of a student-led road blockade in Shahbagh. The driver of the offending vehicle walked over to the police and paid the fine for not carrying a driver’s license. The gathered crowd started applauding  –  they created a drop of mercy.

Similar scenes have been playing out around central Dhaka for the past few days, as students have taken to the streets in protest. Their actions are a response to the killing of two innocent people on July 30. Mim, an 11th grader, and Karim, studying in the 12th, were waiting at a bus stop on Airport Road when two buses crashed into the crowd. Both students died on the spot, nine other children were injured.

In Bangladesh, 7,397 were killed in road accidents in 2017 alone, 1,249 of these were from bus accidents. When the press asked shipping minister Shajahan Khan for a comment on the recent deaths, he said, “a road crash has claimed 33 lives in India’s Maharashtra but do they talk about it like the way we do?”

The following day, July 31, enraged youth took charge of Dhaka’s streets.

Since then Dhaka has been covered with hotspots of non-violent, youth-led protest. The children turn up on the streets everyday, demonstrating their endurance as well as the impact of powerful organisation, heartfelt resistance and empathy.

Girls checking that a driver has a valid license. Credit: Tasneem Khalil/Facebook

The main aim of this student-led drive, comprising kids between the ages of 12 and18, all dressed in their school uniforms, is to block all of Dhaka’s main junctions. They are stopping cars, buses and trucks to politely check for drivers’ licenses. If a driver doesn’t have valid license is found, the student protesters take him or her to the police stationed nearby, and file a case. They have taken the issue of traffic safety into their own hands. The protesters have also sent demands to the government  – a nine-point list that asks for strict punishments for currently unregulated traffic crimes, better infrastructure in accident-prone areas and the removal of undocumented/illegal vehicles, among others.

The students’ sincerity and determination is hard to put into words. As one group stops a bus to check for a license, a few others are busy fixing potholes while another group cleans the road; meanwhile, a few others are discussing what needs to be done next. They are organising and collaborating to create change. They know that change is no longer led by one, but by many.

Girls with a sign demanding safer roads, August 1, 2018. Credit: Jenir Anjum Anjila/ Facebook.

Social change today is a team sport. These Dhaka teens know it, and they are playing by new rules: creating spaces where every voice is valuable, where compassion is the backbone of action, where camaraderie is essential. There are often hundreds, even thousands, of students filling the streets, bearing heat and rain with determination, raising slogans in the name of justice.

In one part of the city, students stopped a powerful minister’s car from driving on the wrong side of the road, and forced him to turn around. On Facebook, videos show students stopping policemen on motorcycles to ask for their licenses. If they can’t produce one, they pay a fine like everyone else. No one is exempt from this student policing, because everyone is equal under the law.

Let’s not forget that these are kids. In school uniforms. And they are making wonders happen on the street. They are demanding justice from the adults who have failed them. Over the last few days they have been belittled, soaked, injured and even beaten by authorities. That hasn’t stopped the movement from growing.

Student protests are becoming a force to reckon with across the world. Only a few months ago, Bangladeshi students took to the streets to demand reforms to the university quota system. Overseas, students in the US have organised to protest gun violence and US President Donal Trump’s border separation policy; native American teenagers even sparked a global environmental movement with their efforts. In India, students have protested multiple times in the recent past, from advocating for freedom of speech at Jawaharlal Nehru University to demanding gender equality on the streets of Delhi.

Now, parents, caregivers, teachers, religious leaders (and anyone who engages with kids) must ask themselves how they can help this world’s youth realise their potential. What sorts of support networks and social infrastructure must be put in place to enable today’s students?

Imagine if every young person was as inspired and empowered as the thousands of students on the streets of Dhaka. What would our world look like?

Saurav Roy works as a consultant at Ashoka – Innovators for the Public.

Two Dead, 43 Injured in School Bus Crash in New Jersey

The bus collided with a dump truck on a New Jersey highway, ripping the bus apart and leaving students dangling by seat belts.

Morristown: A student and a teacher were killed and 43 others injured when a school bus with preteens on a field trip collided with a dump truck on a New Jersey highway on Thursday, ripping the bus apart and leaving students dangling by seat belts, officials said.

The crash occurred at about 10:20 am in Mount Olive Township in northern New Jersey’s Morris County, governor Phil Murphy told a news conference. The bus was carrying 38 students and seven adults, including the driver.

“Some patients are in critical condition and currently undergoing surgery, so please keep everybody in your prayers,” Murphy said.

“There is an awful lot we just don’t know,” the governor said, adding details of the crash were not being released pending an investigation.

The front end of the bus was severed from the vehicle and the body of the bus was separated from its chassis, which remained on the highway. The dump truck seemed to be mostly intact.

The bus was carrying students from East Brook Middle School in Paramus to Waterloo Village, a restored 19th century canal town, officials said.

“The bus flew off of the wheels, but it hit the metal thing on the side of the highway,” fifth-grader Theo Ancevski said. He told reporters he escaped through an emergency door on the bus.

“A lot of people (inside the bus) were screaming and they were like, hanging from their seat belts,” he added. US fifth-graders are generally aged 10 or 11.

The crash temporarily shut all westbound lanes of I-80, state police said.

“The children were all over, outside,” said Morris County Office Of Emergency management director Jeff Paul.

“We had every injury type that you can imagine for a scenario like this. It’s tragic,” he told reporters.

Two other buses in the field trip convoy also carrying fifth-graders on the same trip returned to Paramus, officials said.

The operator of the dump truck, Mendez Trucking, had 33 units that drive 3.1 million km in total in 2017 and had been involved in seven crashes over the past two years, US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records showed.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents involving buses, was gathering information but was not investigating the collision, it said on Twitter.

Paramus is about 15 km west of upper Manhattan. Mount Olive is about 64 km west of Paramus.

(Reuters)

13 Children Killed as Train Rams Into School Bus in UP

The accident occurred at an unmanned railway crossing early in the morning.

Gorakhpur: At least 13 children were killed on the spot and eight others injured this morning when a speeding train rammed into their school bus at an unmanned railway crossing in Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, about 50 km from Gorakhpur, said railways spokesman Ved Prakash.

The children, students of Divine Public School, were killed on the spot when the Thawe-Kapatanganj passenger train crashed into the van at the unmanned crossing gate at Behpurva, said Prakash.

The Thawe-Kapatanganj passenger train train was on way to Gorakhpur from Siwan when it crashed into the Divine Public School bus. There were at least 25 passengers, including children who were below the age of 10, in the van, Prakash said. “It was an unmanned level crossing gate at Behpurva, with Gate Mitra (rail volunteer) deployed there. He tried to stop the van but the unfortunate incident happened at unmanned gate 45 near Dudhi station in Banaras division.” An accident relief medical train from Gorakhpur has been dispatched to the site, he added.

UP chief minister Adityanath expressed condolence and announced ex gratia compensation of Rs two lakh for the families of the victims and directed the Gorakhpur commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the accident, NDTV quoted principal secretary (information) Awanish Awasthi as saying. Railways minister Piyush Goyal announced compensation of Rs two lakh each for the kin of the deceased.

About three years ago, a majority of train accidents were caused due to derailments, followed by accidents at level crossings. Sometime last year, the railway minister had stated that there were about 5,000 unmanned level crossings in India and that they would be removed within the following year.

(With PTI inputs)