Palakkad/Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi, Oct 6 (PTI) Nine people, including five students were killed and over 40 were injured after a private bus hit a state-run KSRTC bus from behind in Kerala’s Palakkad district, police said on Thursday.
The accident occurred around 11.30 PM on Wednesday when the private tourist bus hit the rear end of the government bus, Kerala Road Transport Minister Antony Raju said.
The tourist vehicle was driven at a high speed, over 97 km per hour, and the accident happened while the driver attempted to overtake a car, he said. Preliminary reports indicated that the accident occurred due to negligence and over-speeding, the Minister added.
According to police, of the five students who died, three were girls. All the deceased students were aged between 15 and 17 years. More than 40 people were injured in the accident, that occurred at Vadakkencherry in Palakkad district.
The Kerala High Court intervened in the matter seeking a report from the police and the Motor Vehicles Department, asking how such a bus, having flashing or laser lights and pressure horns, was issued a fitness certificate.
President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition, V D Satheesan expressed grief and condoled the deaths.
The students who survived the accident recalled their harrowing moments. “There was blood everywhere. We do not know what has happened to some of our friends and teachers who were in bad shape,” a student said, breaking into tears.
Another student said that she was watching a film when the accident occurred and someone landed on top of her as the bus toppled. “Someone pulled me and another girl out of the bus. But the girl sitting close to me could not be pulled out until much later,” she told the media.
The driver of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus told reporters that he was driving at a speed of around 40 km per hour when the private bus suddenly hit his vehicle from behind and he barely managed to control the vehicle and prevent it from falling into a ditch.
“The private bus hit us from behind, ripped off a piece of our bus from one side and then went past us at high speed and toppled over,” the KSRTC bus driver said.
Visuals showed a large piece of the state-transport vehicle inside the tourist bus. The private vehicle had started from the Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School in Ernakulam at 7 PM on Wednesday with 42 students and five teachers.
Parents, whose children went on the trip said that they had told the bus driver to drive carefully, but he drove at a speed close to 100 km per hour which led to the tragedy.
The errant bus driver, who had allegedly escaped from a hospital after receiving first aid, was later detained by police.
The Transport Commissioner said the bus was blacklisted by Kottayam RTO, where it was registered, for violating various motor vehicle rules in the past.
The KSRTC bus was going from Kottarakkara in Kerala to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and had 81 passengers. PTI HMP COR VGN VGN
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