A girl was killed and six other students sustained severe injuries when a KSRTC bus, following a brake failure, struck their auto-rickshaw near Muddenaalli in the taluk on Monday.
The deceased has been identified as Amrina Taj, 16. The injured are: Madsur Pasha, 15, of Sultanpet; Syed Pasha, 15, of Nandi village; Syed Rikeed, 16, Jilan, 15, Ashid, 15, and the auto driver, Srinath, 35. The students were members of the Government High School on BB Road.
According to the police, the Chikkaballapur-bound bus suffered a brake failure near the Tirnahalli bus stand. The driver tried his best to control the vehicle but it crashed into an auto-rickshaw which had been parked on the side of the road. It then hit another vehicle coming from the opposite direction and a bicycle rider who had been traveling down the
road.
Crashed into tree
Before more damage could be caused, the driver forced the bus into a nearby vacant lot where it crashed into a tree and stopped, the police added.
He then reportedly fled the scene.
The students in the auto-rickshaw had been waiting for a classmate to alight from the vehicle when the accident happened, explained Madsur Pasha, one of the injured.
“We were on our way home and had stopped at the Tirnahalli bus stand for one of our classmates to get down,” he said. “We noticed the speeding bus bearing down on us but before we could realise it, the bus had smashed into our auto.”
The impact was so great that the auto-rickshaw was turned over and smashed, he added.
The injured were promptly rushed to the hospital.
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