Two school children died and six others were injured, one of them critically, when a van rammed into their bus near Kodikonda checkpost, about 90 km from here, on Monday morning.
The school bus was transporting children from nearby villages to Sai Yesu School of Chilamathur town. At around 10 a.m., a van coming from the direction of Bangalore hit the school bus head-on on National Highway 7.
Two of the injured were declared dead on arrival at Chilamathur hospital while five children were taken to a hospital in Hindupur for medical treatment. Yet another child, Sanjana, who was critically injured, was rushed to Bangalore for specialised treatment. 14 other children were discharged after getting first aid. All of them were in the 5-8 years age group.
The deceased have been identified as a girl, Sony, and a boy, Gautam. The driver of the school bus escaped with minor injuries.
Irate parents of the children along with local villagers and TDP supporters set the van on fire. It was completely gutted. About 1,000 people led by Telugu Desam MP from Hindupur Nimmala Kistappa and local MLA Abdul Ghani staged a dharna on NH-7, bringing traffic to a halt on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway. They are demanding that the State Government take steps to prevent such accidents in future.
Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu, in a statement, expressed grief over the deaths of the schoolchildren. Observing that such accidents were lately on the rise, he urged the Chief Minister to initiate long term measures to check this trend.
