Odisha: Passenger bus falls off bridge over Mahanadi, 12 killed
BHUBANESWAR: Twelve people were killed and many hurt when a bus carrying over 52 passengers fell off a bridge over Mahanadi in Cuttack on Tuesday.
Police said a passenger bus from colliery town of Talcher was on its way to Cuttack when it came across a buffalo on the bridge near Jagatpur, forcing the driver to slam the brakes. This caused the vehicle to smash through the bridge’s cement railings and fall 30 feet to land on a sandbar on the riverbed.
There were 52 passengers in the bus including the driver, police said. Of them, 12 passengers, including three women, have succumbed to their injuries.
Another 40 are being treated in SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack. Of them four are said to be very critical, police said.
There was no water where the bus fell, said Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh, adding, casualties may increase due to severity of the fall.
Expressing his deep grief over the deaths, chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked minister Chandra Sarathi Behera to rush to the spot and oversee rescue and relief efforts. He has announced compensation of ~2 lakh each to next of the kin of the deceased, and free treatment for those injured.
Fire services director general BK Sharma said his men and local youth managed to pull out all the passengers from the bus which lay on the riverbed.
“Rescue operations were hampered due to lack of light. Besides, it was difficult to approach the site by boat,” he said. Over 40 fire services personnel were pressed in rescue operation.
Three days ago, the state assembly was told that a total of 43,312 people have died in road accidents in Odisha in last decade, or an average of 12 people daily. Another 61,884 people were critically hurt while 57,937 sustained minor injuries.