PUNE, January 29: She could barely speak due to the pain that the serious injuries on her forehead caused her. Yet the mother in was restless to know the condition of her six-month old baby which was also undergoing treatment on another bed nearby.Even as the mother worried about the well-being of her child, the number of people gathered at the Sassoon General Hospital steadily went up as news of the accident began spreading. The tension and anxiety that gripped the various wards and the trauma centre of the Sassoon general hospital was tangible, with scores of people checking and rechecking the list of the injured persons to know whether any of their relatives had been admitted. A host of senior civic and police officials, corporators, members of various social organisations coordinated the help operations. Two autorickshaw drivers Raju Ranawat and Rahil Hire were the first ones to bring one of the accident victims. Ranawat and Hire, along with several others who witnessed the mishap ran into theriver-bed to save the victims. However, the hospital staff acted in a very unprofessional manner say the rescuers. According to Hire and Ranawat, they had brought a fourteen-year-old boy to the hospital whose life could have been saved but for the the lackadaisical attitude of the doctors. The doctors kept asking unnecessary questions about the tragedy they claimed.
Meanwhile, youths from the Parnakuti and Bund Garden area displayed a tremendous public awareness and presence of mind when the bus plunged into the Mula Mutha river.
All the workers of the nearby Burning Ghat Tarun Mandal and the Bund Garden Tarun Mandal as well as the stall owners from outside the Bund Garden rushed to help the accident victims.
Taking over the rescue work from the police, they pulled out a majority of the trapped victims before the arrival of the firemen. Later, when the rescue operations were over, they also approached the nearby Parnakuti police chowky and offered to record their statements.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
