18 migrant workers dead as truck rams bus
LUCKNOW: At least 18 people were killed and 30 others were injured after a truck collided with a stationary double-decker bus in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district early on Wednesday, the police said.
The axle of the double-decker bus, which was carrying 140 migrant workers from Punjab and Haryana, broke and was parked near Ram Sanehi Ghat when the truck rammed it, killing 18 people on the spot, police added.
The conductor and drivers of the bus and truck fled the spot immediately after the incident, they added. The migrant workers were on their way home from Palwal in Haryana to Bihar when the mishap occurred. The impact of the collision was such that the bodies were completely disfigured. Only 12 bodies were identified at the time of filing this report.
The injured were rushed to hospitals in Barabanki and Lucknow, the police said.
A few passengers told police that over 60 of them were accommodated into the doubledecker bus at Palwal from another bus by the driver and conductor, additional director general of police (Lucknow zone) SN Sabat said.
After the axle of the bus broke midway, some of the passengers got down and waited as the driver tried to call a mechanic. Some of them also fell asleep under and beside the bus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and ₹50,000 each for the injured, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The officials cited above said chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed financial assistance be provided to the kin of the deceased.
“The deaths of people in a road accident in Ram Sanehi Ghat area of Barabanki district is very sad. My condolences are with the bereaved families,” Adityanath tweeted in Hindi.
Following the accident, an FIR was filed against the drivers, conductor and owners of the bus and truck under section 304(A) (causing death by negligence) among others sections of the Indian Penal Code.