BHOPAL: Hours after 13 people perished and another 16 were injured in a bus-dumper accident on Wednesday night, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday transferred state transport commissioner Sanjay Kumar Jha, Guna district collector Tarun Rathi and SP Vijay Kumar Khatri over the “heart-wrenching tragedy”.
The bus owner, Bhanu Pratap Sikarwar, is reported to be a contractor and the younger brother of Vishwanath Sikarwar, vice-president of BJP’s Guna district unit. The 32-seater bus was 15 years old. Preliminary information from the transport department revealed that its registration and fitness certificate had expired and it was not insured either.
Based on statements from the injured passengers, an FIR has been filed against the bus owner and driver and the dumper driver. There are no names in the FIR, only the registration numbers of the two vehicles. Both drivers died in the accident.The transport department was taken away from principal secretary Sukhveer Singh and given to additional chief secretary (home) Rajesh Rajora. Regional transport officer Ravi Barelia and Guna chief municipal officer BD Katroliya were suspended over the delayed arrival of the fire brigade at the accident site. Survivors and witnesses said the fire brigade arrived one and a half hours later although Guna is barely 7km away.
President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia have expressed deep sorrow over the accident. The CM met the survivors of the tragedy at the Guna District Hospital. He ordered a probe by a four-member committee, headed by additional district magistrate Mukesh Kumar Sharma, which has been asked to submit its report in three days. Tales of horror tumbled out of the gutted bus as police began their investigation. Eleven bodies were found inside the bus and two near the entrance. The heat was so intense that five to six bodies were fused together, making identification impossible. DNA tests will be carried out to identify the victims.
According to preliminary investigation, the dumper was parked in neutral on a slope, but it seems to have had a malfunction of the steering and brakes, resulting in a head-on collision with the passenger bus on the outskirts of the city. Eyewitnesses and survivors narrated to police horrifying accounts of people falling over each other, desperate to get out after the bus toppled on its left side, blocking the exit, and caught fire.
At least 15 to 17 passengers were rescued through the windows. One of the survivors, Gora Bai, was distraught that she could get out but her daughter was trapped. The woman was seated on the left with some relatives while her daughter was seated on the bonnet.
Watch 11 dead as bus catches fire in collision with dumper truck in Guna
The bus owner, Bhanu Pratap Sikarwar, is reported to be a contractor and the younger brother of Vishwanath Sikarwar, vice-president of BJP’s Guna district unit. The 32-seater bus was 15 years old. Preliminary information from the transport department revealed that its registration and fitness certificate had expired and it was not insured either.
Based on statements from the injured passengers, an FIR has been filed against the bus owner and driver and the dumper driver. There are no names in the FIR, only the registration numbers of the two vehicles. Both drivers died in the accident.The transport department was taken away from principal secretary Sukhveer Singh and given to additional chief secretary (home) Rajesh Rajora. Regional transport officer Ravi Barelia and Guna chief municipal officer BD Katroliya were suspended over the delayed arrival of the fire brigade at the accident site. Survivors and witnesses said the fire brigade arrived one and a half hours later although Guna is barely 7km away.
President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia have expressed deep sorrow over the accident. The CM met the survivors of the tragedy at the Guna District Hospital. He ordered a probe by a four-member committee, headed by additional district magistrate Mukesh Kumar Sharma, which has been asked to submit its report in three days. Tales of horror tumbled out of the gutted bus as police began their investigation. Eleven bodies were found inside the bus and two near the entrance. The heat was so intense that five to six bodies were fused together, making identification impossible. DNA tests will be carried out to identify the victims.
According to preliminary investigation, the dumper was parked in neutral on a slope, but it seems to have had a malfunction of the steering and brakes, resulting in a head-on collision with the passenger bus on the outskirts of the city. Eyewitnesses and survivors narrated to police horrifying accounts of people falling over each other, desperate to get out after the bus toppled on its left side, blocking the exit, and caught fire.
At least 15 to 17 passengers were rescued through the windows. One of the survivors, Gora Bai, was distraught that she could get out but her daughter was trapped. The woman was seated on the left with some relatives while her daughter was seated on the bonnet.
Watch 11 dead as bus catches fire in collision with dumper truck in Guna