PUNE, Feb 5: Seven people were killed on the spot and 23 others seriously injured when a speeding truck collided head-on with an Andhra Pradesh State Transport bus near Indapur, about 112 kms from here on Pune-Solapur road, late on Thursday night.The bus was on its way to Hujurabad in Andhra Pradesh from Bhiwandi via Pune and Solapur. It had reached Kalewadi hamlet, about 16 kms from Indapur town, around 10.30 p.m. when the truck collided with it. The truck was coming to Pune from Mohol in Solapur district. The body of the bus was torn and passengers on the right side suffered severe injuries. The truck skid about 150 feet before turning turtle. Some policemen who rushed to the spot shifted the victims to the nearby government hospital with the help of passers-by.
The traffic came to standstill for nearly two hours as the entire road was blocked. The traffic limped back to normalcy after both the vehicles were moved with the help of a crane. Seven people were proclaimed dead on arrival at the hospital at Indapur. Four critically injured victims were later shifted to Sassoon Hospital. Those dead were bus passengers Vijaya Dasari (30), seven-year-old Navin Dasari, Srinivas Dasari (12) and Laxmi Etam (25) from Andhra Pradesh and a truck passenger Shivaji Shinde from Mohol. The identities of another truck passenger and a woman travelling in the bus, who were among dead, could not be ascertained till late in the evening.
The seriously injured admitted to Indapur hospital were Gangaram Mamdila, Maniram Bidi, Narsayya Konda, Ramayya Barkula, Ajayya Nadegattu, Nagmani Nadegattu, Alivarayan Adigopal, Narayan Rajpalli, Dorainama Rajpalli, Dakarmachya Laxmi Raot, Samayya Husa, Chandramauli Narsayya Dasri Kariman, Vanita Chandramauli, Venkatesh Ramayya, Tulappa Keruki, Sulochana Pundalik, Kadraj Venkatesh, Ajodya Hassan and bus driver G Bhaskar Reddy.
Truck driver Basavraj Chandrashetty, Shankar Pattampalli, Laxmi Pattampalli and Upkahun Male, who are critically injured are undergoing treatment at Sassoon Hospital.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.