Nineteen people got killed and 25 suffered an injury when a speeding truck hit a Kerala Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus near Tirupur in Tamil Nadu in Thursday’s wee hours. Two Bus drivers and Five women died.
As per the police, there were 48 passengers in the bus and the accident happened in the area of Avinashi (Tirupur district) on the Avinashi-Salem bypass at 3.40 am.
The Garuda Volvo bus was on its way to Ernakulam from Bengaluru. The container truck had its way to Bengaluru from Kochi.
The driver of the truck K A Hemaraj, 37, from Kollathumkundil at Ottapalam near Palakkad, felt asleep and lost his control of the vehicle.
The truck hit the 30-cm-high median and crossed over to the other side of the lane. In the impact, the container got detached and ripped the right side of the bus. Most of the people sitting on this side were killed.
Survivors sitting on the front portion of the bus got completely mangled in the collision. Passing motorists informed the Tirupur city police to rush to the spot. Fire and rescue services personnel also arrived and started doing their rescue work. The public too joined them in breaking open the glass panes of the bus and helping the passengers to rescue themselves.
The bodies were then sent to the Avinashi Government Hospital and then to the Tirupur Government Hospital for postmortem work.
Rescue work has also been completed around 8.30 am.
Police had even blocked the stretch on the Avinashi-Salem NHAI road and diverted all vehicles.
V K Sreekandan, Palakkad MP, D Balamurali, Palakkad collector, G Shiva Vikaram, Palakkad superintendent of police, and other police officials were present at the accident spot regulating the rescue work.
Kerala transport minister A K Saseendran and agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar visited the spot and consoled relatives of the deceased. The transport minister has announced a solatium of Rs 10 lakh to the family of each passenger and Rs 30 lakh each to the drivers as well.
