Nearly 30 students and five teachers of Subrahmanya Shenoy Memorial Higher Secondary School, Payyannur, who were on a study tour, were injured when the bus they were travelling in rammed a two-storey house on the coastal road near Puthiyappa in the city on Friday afternoon. A majority of the injured were admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.
Hospital sources said five students had suffered serious head injuries. Timely rescue efforts and emergency medical care reduced the impact of the accident, they said.
The police said a pregnant woman in the house, who collapsed during the accident, was shifted to a private hospital. Hospital sources said her condition was stable.
In the impact of the crash, the frontage of the house was fully destroyed. The injured students were pulled out of the bus with the support of the Fire and Rescue Services personnel from Beach station. Local residents too lent a hand in rescue operations.
The police said the bus rammed the house following suspected negligence on the part of the driver.
Around two years ago, the same house was damaged in a similar accident involving a car, they said.
Locals said the number of those injured in the accident would have been more had there been pedestrians on the nearby footpath. But, the accident occurred around 3 p.m. and there weren’t many people on the road at the time, they said.
The accident took place when the excursion team was on their way to Kappad after visiting the Kozhikode beach and planetarium. There were 43 persons in the bus, including students and teachers.
District Police Chief Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar and other senior officers visited the spot to coordinate rescue activities.
