JOIN US10 research scholars hurt in bus accident
The injured have been identified as Sajeevan, 30, Gurumurthy, 35, Parvathi, 27, Basavarajeshwari, 27, Narendra Kumar, 24, Imran, 21, Kumari Prithvi, 28, Babitha, 31, Rajalakshmi, 22 and Debina T, 22. They were immediately rushed to a private hospital on Chord Road. Imran and Debina got their shoulders fractured. All of them are being treated as in-patients and likely to be discharged on Sunday, said K C Reddy, one of the staff.
They were among the 47 research scholars and staff on an educational tour to the GKVK centre at Ponnampet near Madikeri.
The team, comprising 35 students, seven alumni and five staff members, left Yelahanka around 7 am. When the bus approached the underpass on West of Chord Road, the driver lost control over the steering wheel on wet concrete road and the vehicle rammed the median. It slid along the median, hit an electric pole and toppled, said the police.
One of the scholars, Rehan, said: “We were chatting with each other when the bus entered the underpass. Soon, we felt a sudden jerk. The bus was moving in zig zag way. We heard some noise and before we could realise what was happening, the bus had toppled.”
All of them started crying for help. Passersby helped them come out of the bus through emergency exit window.
The police shifted the injured to a nearby private hospital. Movement of vehicles was affected as the police blocked entry to the underpass from both sides. As a result, the traffic chaos spilled over to the service roads in Vijayanagar and Rajajinagar. It took nearly two hours for the police to lift the bus, using three canes.
The police said rash driving was the cause and they are on the lookout for the driver.
Relative and friends of the injured and other students rushed to the hospital as soon as the news spread. Most of them said they were fortunate as they did not suffer major injuries. The students and the staff were in a state of shock and refused to speak.