Even as the state is yet to recover from the Mangalore air crash, 30 passengers on board a bus were burnt alive after it hit a pole and fell into a gorge at Nayakanahatti Cross, near Challakere town, Chitradurga district early on Sunday.
The dead, who included 15 women and 10 children, were burnt beyond recognition. Twenty-eight other passengers were injured and six were miraculously unhurt when the NEKSRTC bus fell down the gorge, jamming its door in the process. Many of the passengers jumped out by breaking the front and rear glass windows of the bus to escape the fire, while others were not as lucky. The police suspect that diesel may have leaked from the bus when it hit the concrete pole, sending it up in flames as it went down the gorge.
Chitradurga superintendent of police Labhu Ram said most passengers were asleep when the accident took place. All the dead were labourers from Shorapur and Lingasgur taluks of Yadigir and Raichur districts who were on their way to work as coolies in Bengaluru. Bus driver Siddaiah Maddanaiah Hiremath, who has been arrested and charged with rash and negligent driving, told this newspaper that he was forced to swerve to the left beside the culvert to make way for an oncoming truck. “Before I knew it, the bus hit a concrete pole, turned turtle and caught fire. I tried my best to save the passengers, but many died,” he recounted.
Minister for transport R. Ashok, who visited the accident spot, announced compensation of Rs 2.50 lakh for the relatives of the dead and Rs 25,000 for the injured. Chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh from the chief minister’s fund for the families of the dead.
All bodies have been identified and handed over to relatives, except that of a three-year-old girl.