Jhansan (Tanda), April 18
Eight passengers were killed and 20 injured in a head-on collision between two overloaded buses early today.
The accident occurred at about 7.45 am when the driver of a Jalandhar-bound bus (PB-08-N-3080) of Jalandhar’s Society Bus Service lost control of the vehicle in his bid to overtake another bus of the same company.
The out-of-control vehicle rammed into a Pathankot-bound bus (PB-03-H4063) coming from the opposite direction. This bus belonged to the Pathankot depot of the Punjab Roadways. The collision killed six persons on the spot and two of the seriously injured died later in the Government Hospital of Tanda.
Balbir Singh of Kotli village in Hoshiarpur district, driver of the private bus, and Pal Singh of Jaurwal in Sangrur district, driver of the Punjab Roadway’s bus, were among the six who died on the spot. The accident was so severe that it took the
police and rescuers from nearby villages about three hours to extricate the bodies from the mangled remains of the vehicles with the help of welding torches brought from Tanda by a police party.
Villagers, who played a vital role in the rescue operation, said the bang of the collision had been heard 2 km away. “We rushed to the spot and saw death all around and injured passengers crying for help,” said Satish Kumar of Jhansan. Eight passengers, who were said to be seriously injured, were referred to the Civil Hospital at Hoshiarpur, while the rest were admitted to Government Hospital at Tanda.
Besides the drivers and a woman, Raghbir Kaur of Ludhiana, no other deceased has been identified so far,” said the Tanda police. Out of the eight who lost their lives, three were women.
The injured are Amrik Singh, Darshana Kumari of Murthal in Haryana, Jarnail Singh, Sarbjit Kaur, Hazara Singh of Muthada village, Laalji of Ferozepur village near Mukerian in Hoshiarpur district, Ashwani Kumar of Abadgarh in Murthal, Sukhwinder Singh of Ghogra near Dasuya, Prem Singh of Hisar in Haryana, Hans Raj, Swaran Singh of Khudda village in Hoshiarpur district, Kharak Singh of Shahanpur village in Gurdaspur district, Amrik Singh, Parveen Singh of Kaleechpur Kothe in Gurdaspur, Neeraj of Jalandhar, Balbir Kaur of Ludhiana, Puran Singh of Sathala village in Kangra district, Mota Singh of nearby Dauli Ke Dhure village and Jarnail Singh. A boy was also injured in the accident.
The Tanda police has registered a case. Seven bodies were sent to Civil Hospital at Dasuya for post-mortem examination.
Our correspondent adds from Hoshiarpur that Mr Kirandeep Singh Bhullar, Deputy Commissioner of Hoshiarpur, reached the spot and announced Rs 5,000 in each case as ex-gratia grant from the District Red Cross Society to the families of the dead, Rs 1,000 grant in each case to the seriously wounded and Rs 500 grant in each case to those with minor injuries. The District Red Cross Society and Arora Charities Hoshiarpur are providing the injured with free medicines.
Mr Mota Singh, conductor of the private bus told this correspondent that the driver of his bus had been trying to overtake another bus, but had failed to do so as a truck parked on the roadside had come in the way. Meanwhile, the Punjab Roadways bus coming from the opposite direction banged head-on into the bus.
