As many as 17 passengers including 13 students on a school trip sustained injuries after their bus toppled while trying to avoid a head-on collision with a car at Kapinabagilu near Kaukrady village in Kokkada on Friday.
Five students who had received serious injuries were shifted to a private hospital in Mangaluru.
Eyewitnesses told Uppinangady police that the accident took place when the bus, one among three buses, with students and teachers from Shri Gurusidda Maha Swamy Aided Higher Primary School in Yamakana Marady in Hukkeri taluk in Belagavi district, was plying from Dharmasthala to Belur.
The bus driver Ramesh Patil in order to avoid a collision with a car veered towards the left and as a result, the bus fell on its side.
Local residents immediately rushed to the help of passengers and rescued students caught under the bus.
The driver of the car, one Prasad from Tirupati in Chittoor district, also sustained injuries.
Uppinangady police rushed to the spot and registered a case.
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