JOIN USExpert agency begins probe into Haveri accident
An expert team from the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) on Friday inspected the spot near Haveri where a multi-axle Volvo bus went up in flames, killing seven people on Thursday morning.
The team led by NATRiP engineer Sithikanth Phadi examined the burnt bus and collected certain objects and samples from the accident spot on National Highway-4. The experts took photos of the accident spot. The team also prepared a sketch of the stretch, the point where the Mumbai-bound bus rammed a parapet and later caught fire after travelling some 150 metres.
The experts would recreate the scene of accident and ascertain the cause of fire. The team would submit its report to the Union Government. A copy of it will be sent to Volvo, the bus manufacturer. Belgaum division joint commissioner of transport Umashankar said it would take 15 days to two months for the NATRiP to prepare its report. The same team is probing Mahaboobnagar bus inferno, which claimed over 40 lives.
Inspector General of Police (Northern range) Bhaskar Rao said he and joint commissioner of transport Narendra Holkar would jointly probe the accident and submit a report to the state government. Though it is said that driver’s negligence led to the accident, it has to be comprehensively established, he observed.
Victim identified
Meanwhile, the identity of the one of the passengers killed in the accident has been established. The police gave his name as Hemanth (40), a resident of Surat in Gujarat. Hemanth ran a textile machine aligning company in Surat and, had come to Bangalore on an assignment. From Mumbai, he was to return to to Surat.
His brother, Shashikanth, who works in the Surat Municipal Council gave his blood sample to doctors in Hubli for the DNA test to collect his body. Relatives of the other victims who came to Hubli on Friday also gave their blood samples for DNA tests.
Relatives of the three who were seriously injured - Sheraram (27), Mohammad Bashir (42) and Rajendra Kumar (52)- shifted them to private hospitals.
Bashir, who had sustained nearly 60 per cent burns, was shifted to a private hospital in Bangalore, while Sheraram who has suffered nearly 75 per cent burns and is critical was shifted to Kasturaba Medical College in Manipal. Rajendra Kumar's family is planning to shift him to a private hospital in Pune or New Delhi.
“This is the best time for them to be shifted to other private hospitals which have better facilities. Right now, they are stable and can be shifted,” said a doctor who did not wished to be named. Wazir, the cleaner of the bus who has sustained 10 per cent burns injuries on the leg, is being treated at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Science, Hubli. Shobha D Shinde, who had sustained leg injury and requires a surgery. She is being shifted to a Bangalore hospital.