Forty pilgrims were injured, seven of them seriously, when the APSRTC bus in which they were travelling met with an accident on the first ghat road leading to Tirupati.
According to eye-witnesses, the mishap occurred when the driver lost control over the speeding bus while negotiating a deep curve on the ghat road about fifteen kilometres from here. The bus overturned after taking a violent swerve. Both the front and rear windowpanes of the bus were smashed in order to rescue the panic-stricken devotees who screamed for help.
All those seriously injured were immediately rushed to the government-run SVRR hospital at Tirupati for medical treatment.
Meanwhile, the traffic on the ghat road came to a halt and the vehicles remained stranded for over two hours. Normalcy was restored only after clearing the bus from the spot. A crane was specially commissioned for the purpose.
In a separate incident, two women, believed to be related to TTDs board chief, were seriously injured when the TTD vehicle in which they were travelling met with an accident on the second ghat road leading to Tirumala.
The duo, Lakshmikantham (74) and Vijayamma (62), from West Godavari were motoring-up the ghat road along with their family members when the mishap took place.
They were immediately shifted to TTD-run SVIMS hospital for treatment.
