Seventeen people, including nine people from Garhwa and four from Palamu districts of Jharkhand, were killed and as many as 52 others injured when a crowded private bus skidded off a bridge and fell into the dry bed of a rivulet on Garhwa-Ambikapur Road near at Daldhoi ghati under Balrampur police station of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday night.
According to police, the accident took place around 10:30 pm on Wednesday when the driver of the bus suddenly spotted a motorcycle at a sharp turn near Daldhoa. In a bid to save the person on the two-wheeler, the bus driver lost control over the wheels following which the vehicle fell into the dry rivulet bed and overturned, they added.
Sources said that 13 persons died on the spot, while three others succumbed to their injuries at Ambikapur hospital in Chhattisgarh. The bus driver was also reported to be killed in the mishap.
Sources further said that 38 injured passengers were being treated at Balrampur hospital while 14 critically injured travelers were airlifted to Raipur.
The overcrowded bus was on its way to Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur from Garhwa. Maximum number of passengers was labourers on way to the neighbouring State.
After receiving information about accident Garhwa DC Neha Arora sent Ranka SDO to the spot and also directed the CO to identify deceased persons’ family members. The DC confirmed the 17 deaths and 49 injured in the accident.
She said that 66 passengers were travelling in the bus. As per information out of 17, 9 peoples were from Garhwa and 4 from Palamu, the DC said.
The deceased persons have been identified as Imteyaz Ansari of village Neur, Mahesh Bhuiya of village Bhawnathpur, Sikndar Mehta Aurangabad (Bihar), Dilip Gupta of Ramanuj village (Chhatisgarh),Sandeep Yadav of village Purhe under Manjhiaon police station,Jitan Chaudhry of village Baherakhurd under Chainpur ps(Palamu),Yogendra Paswan of village Kandi, Sanjay Yadav,Sunil both of Dawankara village,Vijay Ishwariya Sahu of Chainpur (Palamu),Raju Kumar Mehta of village Simra undr Mirzapur (UP)Dushyant Tiwari of viilage Abhanpur ,Suresh Singh of village Sekna Japala(Palamu). The name of three deceased’s yet to be
ascertained.