Five killed in Volvo bus accident near Hoskote

Five people, including a 24-year-old pregnant woman and a six-year-old boy were killed and 28 others injured, when a Volvo bus on its way to Bangalore from Nellore went out of control and hit a median near Hoskote, about 40 km from here early on Monday.

The victims were identified as Anusha (24), Manas Kumar (6), Vijay Kumar (37), a software engineer working with Wipro, Prasad Chinnam (28), software engineer from Hewlett Packard and Pradeep Kumar (30), who works in a private firm.

All the victims hailed from Nellore and were returning to Bangalore where they were working. The 52 passengers were returning to Bangalore after celebrating Makara Sankranti in Nellore in the bus operated by Rajesh Travels. It was being driven at a speed of 90 kmph when the driver lost control and rammed into a divider, near M.V.J. hospital, two km from the Hoskote. It hurtled onto the service road and fell on its side.

Passersby shifted the injured to the hospital.

Mamatha, who witnessed the accident, recalled that the victims were crying and writhing in pain. “I called for help. I could see two bodies some distance away from the bus. The ambulances reached in some ten minutes. As the hospital was nearby, many of the injured got immediate medical attention.”

There were two drivers in the bus. B.S. Venkatappa, who was driving the Volvo, told the police that he lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid running over a man who was being chased by dogs, Hoskote Inspector H.B. Ramesh Kumar said. However, police inquiries with eye witnesses did not indicate the presence of stray dogs. The police suspect that the driver could have dozed off on the wheel. The driver was not found to be intoxicated. The police are waiting for the driver to be discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, Rajesh K.V., owner of the bus, termed it as an unfortunate accident and said there was no problem with the bus.