FIVE BURNT TO DEATH AS BUS HITS TREE Friday, 24 May 2013 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

FIVE BURNT TO DEATH AS BUS HITS TREE

Friday, 24 May 2013 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

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In a heartrending incident, five persons were burnt to death and 47 were injured, at least 21 of them seriously, when the Bhubaneswar-Sinapali (Nuapada district) Government bus dashed head on with a Neem tree before the Puintala block office near Balangir town in the wee hours (around 3 am) on Thursday.

Twenty-one of the injured persons were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital here. As the conditions of two passengers worsened, they were referred to the VSS Medical College Hospital at Burla, said Balangir CDMO Dr Bikrant Kindo. The impact of the bus’s collision with the tree was so much that the bus immediately caught fire and five people were charred death.

The ill-fated bus (OR-02-BE-6396) was coming at high speed. After the passengers took their dinner at Daspalla in Nayagarh district, there was a change of driver and the bus reached Sonepur very shortly.

“Suddenly we got up from our sleep hearing a startling sound, and within seconds we saw the bus catching fire. A few people could come out of the bus by breaking glass panes.” said an injured passenger.

After the incident, local people informed about the tragedy to the police and fire brigade. The driver fled from the spot. It is suspected that the driver either fell asleep or could not control the movement of the bus.

The incident has raised the question of safety of passengers travelling in night buses and fire fighting mechanism inside the buses. It has also underlined the need of curbing high speed driving particularly during night.