Tanda (Hoshiarpur), June 24
Four persons died on the spot while 40 were injured when an ill-fated New Delhi-bound bus of the Delhi Transport Corporation rammed into a stationary truck near Khakhan village on the Jalandhar-Pathankot national highway in the wee hours today.
The impact of the collision was so strong that residents of three nearby villages thought an explosion had taken place. Most of passengers of the bus were returning from Vaishno Devi shrine.
The deceased have been identified as Prof Izhar Ahmed Ansari and his wife Farha Ansari, hailing from Srinagar, Balbir Singh of Gajraul near Jammu and Faqir Singh of Hamanjupur near Sirhind. The one-and-a-half-year-old daughter of the Ansaris, however, survived and has been admitted to Jalandhar-based Guru Nanak Mission Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
The driver of the bus escaped under cover of darkness. The condition of six of the 40 passengers is stated to be serious. The injured include six children and nine women.
Talking to The Tribune, Mr Sukhwinder Singh of Khakhan village, who was among those who reached the spot at around 3 am, said he and his family members were stunned to hear such a loud bang. “Most of us rushed towards the road where we saw a bus had collided with a truck loaded with stones. Bodies were hanging out of the windscreen of the bus,” he said.
Mr Jagdish Singh, another resident of the village, said people from nearby villages also
rushed to the spot to rescue the injured who had been shifted to the Government Hospital at Tanda with the help of an ambulance of Bhai Ghanayia Charitable Trust.
Mr Parkash, a resident of Ghaziabad, said he was returning from Vaishno Devi shrine along with his family and his mother and brother were injured in the accident. He escaped unhurt along with his wife and daughter.
While most of the injured were discharged after first aid, those who have been admitted to the Tanda hospital include bus conductor Ram Singh, Ganesh, Vir Mohammed, Mohammed Azhur, Bhikan Lal, Prem Singh, Abdul Ghani Lone, Shiva, Kailash Mishra, Abdul Dar, Ashok, Punit Sayal, Ram Babu, Shibo, Premo, Kamlesh Kumari, Shakuntala, Kheema Devi, Mamta, Ganga Devi, Pappu Sumit, Nikke, Puja and P. Kumar.
