Kin of kids on the edge

Hyderabad: Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad where seriously injured school kids of the bus-train tragedy were undergoing treatment. It was an anxious wait for several parents and relatives of the injured children, who were praying to God that their loved ones would come out of danger.

Ilaiah and unit, parents of Shiva Kumar, 5, who said to be critical and undergoing treatment in the intensive care, were hopeful of their only son coming out of danger. Both the parents are agricultural labourers from Venkatayapally village near Toopran.

Eyes moist with tears, Tejaswini, 14, a ninth standard student of the ill-fated school, was praying for quick and early recovery of her younger sister Swathika, 4, studying UKG. She used to travel by the same bus but due to private tuitions she was going by an auto-rickshaw for the last few weeks. Tejaswini said that she would have met the same fate had she travelled in the bus along with her younger sister. The eldest of the three sisters, Niharika, is studying intermediate in Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Medchal.

Ramulu and Shyamala, agricultural labourers hailing from Venkatayapally, dreamt of good careers for their children. For this reason, they enrolled their two children Abhinandu, 9 and Sharath, 6 in a private school despite their meagre earnings. However, fate had other plans in store as the two brothers suffered grievous injuries in the tragedy. They stated that their future would turn bleak if anything happens to their kids.

Recounting the horrific incident, K Sreenivas, a local and eye-witness said that students’ bodies were strewn all over after the train rammed into the bus. He rued laxity on the part of officials for not taking safety steps at this cross which had a history of similar type of incidents, minor if not major, in the past.

He said few persons died when a speeding train hit a bullock cart earlier. Sreenivas felt it was time train officials wake up to take precautionary measures at unmanned level- crossings to avert similar type of incidents.