Over 30 people were injured in a four-vehicle pileup at Tamando near here early on Wednesday morning. They were admitted to various hospitals of the city. Five of them were in critical conditions.
The incident occurred at 4:10 am when a bus named Raja coming from Brahmanigaon dashed against another bus named Chakadola from the rear near the Tamando over-bridge. Minutes later, yet another bus named Nilakantha coming from Bhanjanagar rammed into a truck at the same place.
The driver of Nilakantha got stuck between his bus and the truck. Fire brigade, local police and ODRAF managed to rescue him after an hour-long effort. Traffic came to a standstill on NH-5 for about two hours following the incidents.
“We got information from locals that there has been a vehicle pileup ahead of Aiginia Square near Tamando. Our police team along with rescue team of ODRAF and fire brigade were roped in for the rescue operations. locals also joined hands. About 10 ambulances were rushed in. We managed to rescue about 30 people and sent them to hospitals after a two-hour long operation,” said a police official.
“It took us more than an hour to rescue the driver of bus Nilakantha who had been crushed between his bus and the truck he rammed into. The metal had to be cut. We also used two specialist mechanics to open certain parts of the vehicle in order to rescue him. He was sent to hospital,” he added.
In a related incident also early in morning, a Mercedes-Benz driver lost control of his vehicle near Sainik School Square of the city and rammed into six shops and hit a car before flipping over. No one was hurt in the incident. A major catastrophe was avoided as the shops were closed.