Three of the 30 injured in the accident succumbed to their injuries at the Civil Hospital here where they were shifted to by villagers and passersby immediately after the accident. Eight persons, whose condition deteriorated, were later shifted to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, by district administration officials, who reached the Civil Hospital after the accident. Some of the passengers who received minor injuries were admitted in nearby townships like Hariana and Bhunga.

Most of the injured said the bus was running at a break-neck speed when they heard a big bang. “The driver was driving the vehicle at great speed and the bus jumped off a small bridge before hitting a huge tree,” said Kuldip Singh, who got first aid in a Hariana township hospital.

“I don’t know anything except that we were caught off-guard,” said another passenger who had been admitted to a Bhunga hospital.

Those dead in the accident have been identified as Sham Sunder Kapoor of Kainthan Dasuya village, his wife Nirmala Devi, Ramesh Chander Dogra of Sessions Chowk, Hoshiarpur, Rajinder Kumar of Sarup Nagar, Hoshiarpur, Surjit Singh of Bagpur Sataur village, Jaswant Singh of Raju Bela village, Malkiat Singh of Bagpur Sataur village and two other persons Pritam Singh and Amarjit Singh, whose antecedents could not be verified.

Those who have been injured and referred to the DMC, Ludhiana, include Ramesh Kumar of Bassi Khawaju, Amarjit Singh of the RTP Colony, Ms Sudarshan and two others. As many as 19 injured have been admitted to the Civil Hospital here, which has virutally turned into a camp office for the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Iqbal Singh Sidhu, and other senior officials of the district administration.

In another accident, eight baraatis died and three injured when a truck hit a Tata Sumo carrying them after its tyre got burst, near Chaggran village on the Hoshiarpur-Jalandhar road. All of the victims hailed from Nauli and nearby villages and were proceeding to Mahilpur and were a part of a baraat.

Those died in the accident included Darshan Kaur, Roshan Lal, Shadi Lal, Ashok Kumar, Purshotum Lal. Darshan Lal and Kusum, a six-year-old female child hailing from Nauli village have been admitted to the DMC, Ludhiana.