Five persons, including two women, were killed and more than 40 injured when the Karnataka State Road Transportation Corporation (KSRTC) bus they were travelling in rammed a truck on National Highway 7 near Puduchatram here early on Saturday.
The passengers were from different parts of Bangalore and were on a three-day pilgrimage to temples in Tamil Nadu.
The bus rammed the wood-laden truck around 5.15 a.m. and four persons died on the spot and another on way to the Namakkal Government Hospital (GH), Puduchatram, Police said.
Passengers held the bus driver responsible for the accident. “He was sleepy right from the commencement of the journey,” alleged Rajsekarmurthy (45) who was in the bus with his wife and two daughters.
Bus driver K.R. Nagesh (30), who was admitted with a lip injury, however, denied that he was asleep at the wheel.
“I felt tired around 2 a.m. and had a sound sleep for about an hour after parking the bus near the Omalur Toll Gate,” police quoted him as saying.
Nagesh admitted to the police that he tried to overtake the truck.
The truck suddenly turned to the left and even though he hit the brakes hard and swung the bus to the right, the accident could not be avoided.
Superintendent of Police M. Sathiya Priya, who visited the spot, said it could not be confirmed if there was any fault in the truck that forced its driver to take a sudden turn to the left.
“The mistake is on the part of the bus driver as he should have had his eye open on the vehicle that was going before him,” she added.
The deceased were identified as organiser of the pilgrimage K. Karunanidhi (48), his son K. Naveen (24), S. Devan (50) and S. Uma (50) of Bangalore and Y. Dhanalakshmi of Salem who is working in Bangalore.
“Six persons were admitted to the GH while eight others were admitted to two private hospitals in Namakkal,” said Ms. Priya.
The condition of one of the injured was serious. Persons with minor injuries were treated as out-patients.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare S. Gandhiselvan, Namakkal Sub-Collector T.G. Vinay, revenue officials and volunteers from the Indian Red Cross Society visited the patients and arranged for food for them.
