YAMUNA E-WAY MISHAP KILLS DRIVER
36 occupants, including students and teachers of a school, seriously injured
GREATER NOIDA: In another incident on the accident prone Yamuna Expressway, a bus driver was killed while 36 other occupants, including students, teachers and the principal from a school in Himachal Pradesh, were seriously injured after the speeding vehicle collided with a road divider following a tyre burst near Agra on Friday morning.
According to police, the incident occurred around 9 am near Khandoli toll plaza.
The students and staffer of Alok Bharti School in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh had hired the tourist bus from Chandigarh.
“The bus driver, identified as 45-year-old Harish Sharma, lost control over the vehicle after a tyre burst. Since the bus was driven at high speed, it collided with the divider and turned turtle, killing the driver. The arm of a Class XII student and a leg of the cook Pushpraj had to be amputated by the doctors,” said Shlok Kumar, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Agra.
“The injured are getting treatment at the hospital and their parents have been informed. We are trying to provide all necessary help to the victims” Kumar added.
All the injured students were between the age group of 12 and 17 years, and had come to Agra to visit Taj City and Fatehpur Sikri.
“Around 10 students and a teacher are stated to be critical. 25 students were allowed to go to the hotel after getting first aid. We have informed the Mandi district magistrate about the incident” said Gaurav Dayal, District Magistrate, Agra, who visited S N Medical College, where the victims have been admitted.
Agra division commissioner K Ram Mohan Rao and other senior police officials also visited the hospital.
One of the students, who sustained a head injury, said that the bus was being driven at a very high speed.
“Almost everyone present in the bus was sleeping when the accident occurred. It all happened due to over speeding,” he said.
The Expressway has seen a rise in road fatalities, especially during winter, when fog and bad climatic conditions make driving difficult.
Last week, a 25-year-old engineer was killed after he lost his control over his speeding car near Zero point on Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida.
The spiralling number of road accidents on the 165 km-long Expressway has drawn an urgent need to create a more effective system to monitor speed of vehicles and penalisation of offenders.