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10 killed, 16 hurt as bus falls into canal
In a gruesome accident, 10 people were killed and 16 others sustained severe injuries as a speeding private bus rammed into the railings of a bridge and fell off 30-feet down into a canal at Nayakangudem, 30 kms away from district headquarters Khammam, at around 2 am on Monday.
Khammam: In a gruesome accident, 10 people were killed and 16 others sustained severe injuries as a speeding private bus rammed into the railings of a bridge and fell off 30-feet down into a canal at Nayakangudem, 30 kms away from district headquarters Khammam, at around 2 am on Monday. The bus, belonging Yatra Genie, was bound for Kakinada from Hyderabad and was carrying 31 passengers.
The accident would have gone unnoticed for at least a few more hours leaving the passengers stuck in the air-conditioned bus that turned upside down in the chest-deep waters of Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) Left Canal to their fate, if not some locals, mostly fishermen, who were hanging around the place following a petty mishap on the same Suryapet-Khammam road a few minutes before.
They scurried back to the bridge when they heard a loud sound and found the bus in the canal. They immediately informed the police and also swung into action. They broke open the windows and pulled out the passengers. The injured were rushed to a government hospital in Khammam.
The driver fled from the spot after the accident, it is learnt. Minister for Roads and Buildings Tummala Nageswara Rao, who cancelled his programme at Somla Tanda, took stock of the situation. District Collector DS Lokesh Kumar and Superintendent of Police Shawnawaz Qasim rushed to the spot and monitored the rescue operations.
The incident is similar to that of the accident took place on June 24 this year when a TSRTC bus plunged into the canal at the same spot. Luckily, there was only one casualty then. In that mishap, while a 14-month-old boy died, 15 others sustained injuries.
However, though the authorities identified the spot as accident-prone, there was neither a signboard nor any effort to widen the narrow bridge.“If not for the presence of the locals at the time of accident, death toll would have been much higher than 10,” a villager said, stressing the need for
widening the road. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia next to the kin of deceased’s families.
