Ten persons, including two women, were killed and 16 others injured when a private bus bound for Kakinada plunged into an irrigation canal at Nayakangudem village about 30 kms from Khammam early on Monday.
The accident occurred when the bus from Hyderabad with 26 passengers, a conductor and two drivers, crashed into a “temporary” protection wall of the bridge across the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) left bank canal before falling into the irrigation channel.
Seven passengers were killed on the spot and three others died on the way to hospital.
The remaining occupants of the ill-fated bus are being treated for multiple injuries. Most of the victims were from East Godavari and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Harshavardhini, a one-year-old infant, had a miraculous escape as local fishermen saved the baby and her mother Venkatasuryasai. The fishermen also rescued other passengers who were trapped inside the bus, which landed upside down in the irrigation canal.
One of the two drivers of the bus suffered fractures in his legs. The other driver fled the spot immediately after the incident.
Glaring deficiencies
This is the second accident to have occurred on the same spot on the bridge in less than two months. On June 24, a 14-month-old boy was killed and ten others seriously injured when a TSRTC bus nosedived into the canal.
Monday’s accident has exposed glaring deficiencies in road safety at the bridge on the busy highway and drew flak from road users including local residents.
Blame game begins
While local residents pointed to the lack of a foolproof protection wall at the bridge for the accident, the Roads and Building department officials blamed it on “rash driving” and another accident involving two other vehicles a few metres away from the bridge.
The police deployed two giant cranes to retrieve the bus in a rescue operation that lasted nearly five hours.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister N Chinarajappa, YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and others visited the accident spot.
