42-seater vehicle had 100 on board when it fell into a gorge
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, August 11
At
least 52 persons were killed and 40 injured when an overcrowded private
bus rolled down into a gorge near Rajera village, around 10 km from
Chamba today.
There were around 100 passengers in the 42-seater
vehicle that was on its way from Dularha to Chamba. Many of them were
perched on the rooftop.
While 39 persons died on the spot, 13
succumbed to their injuries in a hospital at Chamba. While 34 injured
passengers have been hospitalised at Chamba, six seriously injured have
been referred to the Tanda Medical College in Kangra.
Most of the
passengers belonged to Kuranh, Dularha, Gagla and Rajera villages. They
were all heading for the Minjar fair which began at Chamba yesterday.
The bus was overloaded as the state road transport corporation had
withdrawn its morning bus service due to weekend holidays. The driver of
the bus was among those killed. The conductor, however, had a
miraculous escape.
One of the few survivors, Vijay Kumar, said
the mishap occurred after a front wheel of the bus came off. He was
standing at the rear door and managed to jump out of the bus before it
fell into the gorge. An eyewitness, however, claimed that the accident
happened after the rear tyre of the vehicle burst.
SP Chamba,
Kuldeep Sharma, said an FIR has been registered on the basis of Vijay
Kumar’s statement. He said there were reports that the bus was quite old
and the police was trying to ascertain if it was fit for plying.
The locals blamed the lack of adequate bus services for overcrowding, which leads to mishaps in most cases.
They
said there was no reason for the state road transport corporation to
withdraw services during the Minjar fair, when more buses were needed to
cope with the rush of commuters. According to sourses, the corporation,
which has been incurring loss of around Rs 5 per bus per km, usually
scales down its operations on holidays to curtail losses.
Speaker
Tulsi Ram, who hails from Chamba district, and local MLA BK Chauhan
supervised the relief and rescue operations along with Deputy
Commissioner Sunil Chaudhary and SP Sharma.
(
Courtesy The Tribune)
