JOIN USFour killed as BMTC bus knocks down vehicles
Four people were killed on the spot and as many others suffered injuries in a chain accident involving a BMTC bus, a goods vehicle, two bikes and a bicycle on the Lingarajpuram flyover on Wednesday evening.
Mohammad Noorulla, 43, of HBR Layout, Aslam Ahmed K, 40, of Govindpur and Syed Muneer, 40, of K G Halli, are the victims. The identity of the fourth victim is yet to be established. The injured are Afsar, 41, Farooque Ahmed, 24, Ramesh, 33, his wife Susheela, 27. They are being treated at Bowring and Sundar hospitals. Afsar and Farooque have suffered major injuries, while Ramesh and Susheela are out of danger, the police said.
The police are trying to ascertain what caused the accident.
“We are trying to reconstruct the entire accident. The initial probe has indicated that the accident occurred soon after the bus started coming down the Lingarajpuram flyover,” DCP (Traffic-East) M N Babu Rajendra Prasad said.
The driver lost control over the bus and it entered the other side of the road. On the way, the bus collided with a goods vehicle, two bikes and a bicycle. There are reports that brake failure in the bus caused the accident, but the police are verifying the statements of eyewitnesses and the driver, he added. The bus was plying from Shivajinagar to Hennur (292 F).
Syed Hussein, an eyewitness, told Deccan Herald: “The accident occurred at 7.10 pm as I was walking on the pavement. The bus suddenly veered to the right and jumped the median. The driver failed to control it and it entered the other side of the road. The bus kept hitting vehicles that were coming from the opposite direction.”
“Noorulla was driving the goods vehicle, while Aslam was sitting next to him and Afsar was in the back. Noorulla and Aslam were killed on the spot after the bus rammed their vehicle, while Afsar suffered serious injuries,” said Shah Nawaz, another eyewitness.
Syed Muneer and another person, who were riding bikes, were tossed up in the air, fell down and came under the wheels of the bus. The bus finally came to rest after hitting the pavement, he added.
Commotion prevailed for a while as bus passengers started screaming for help. Traffic stopped on the entire stretch for more than an hour, Nawaz added.
“I was travelling to Hennur. I heard some noise and before I could make out what caused the accident, the bus had jumped the median. Soon, passengers started screaming. I got up, lost balance and fell down. Within seconds, the bus went on ramming vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Some passengers in the bus too suffered injuries,” Umesh, one of the passengers in the bus, said.
The bus driver fled the spot but the police detained him later. BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur told Deccan Herald that the bus had no problems and apparently the driver lost control over the vehicle. “We will look into what happened,” she added.