1 killed, 37 injured as lorry collides with bus in Dobbspet

One person was killed and 37 people were injured in a head-on collision between a private bus and a granite-laden lorry near­ Ray­arapalya on National Highway–4 under Dobbspet police station limits in Bengaluru Rural district in the early hours of Tuesday. The lorry driver died on the spot, while the cleaner is in a critical condition.

According to the police, the bus was coming from Hosapete to Bengaluru, while the lorry was on its way to Tumakuru from the city.

At around 5 am, as they reached Rayarapalya, the drivers were overspeeding and the vehicles collided head on. As many as 35 passengers who were sleeping inside the bus suffered minor injuries. The driver of the bus Shanmugappa also suffered serious injuries and is being treated at the Tumakuru government hospital.

Passersby helped rescue the passengers from the mangled remains of the bus. They were shifted to various hospitals in Bengaluru and Tumakuru. The body of the lorry driver was shifted for post-mortem to the Tumakuru government hospital, said the police.

“As the lorry reached an U-turn, the driver lost control of it, came to the other side of the road and collided with the bus. The lorry driver may have dozed off and overspeeding may have caused the accident. We are trying to identify the owner of the lorry,” police said.

A case has been registered and efforts are on to identify the lorry driver and cleaner.