Picture : Twitter/ ANI
One of the survivors of the ill-fated bus that caught fire and led to the death of 25 passengers in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district , said he and a few others managed to come out of the burning vehicle by breaking its rear window.
Bodies will be identified using DNA testing if required, says Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Buldhana bus accident told ANI . He further said, Road construction not the cause of bus accident on Samruddhi highway.
The accident took place on the Samruddhi Expressway near Sindkhedraja in Buldhana when the private passenger bus going from Nagpur to Pune rammed into a road divider around 1.30 am. Of the 33 passengers in the bus, 25 were charred to death, police said.
#WATCH | Maharashtra: Visuals from Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway in Buldhana where 26 people died and 8 others were injured after a bus travelling from Nagpur to Pune met with an accident. pic.twitter.com/3JTRLzKuZH
— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2023
We bought the bus in the year 2020. The bus driver Danish was experienced in driving. We have got information that the bus hit the road divider after tyre burst. Due to the presence of flammable items in the bus, the bus caught fire: Virendra Darna, owner of the bus that met with an accident in Buldhana, Maharashtra told ANI
“A tyre of the bus burst and the vehicle caught fire immediately. The blaze spread in no time,” the survivor said.
“The passenger seated next to me and I managed to escape by breaking the rear window,” he said. The survivor said that after the accident, teams of police and fire brigade reached the site quickly.
A local resident said four to five passengers managed to escape by breaking one window of the bus. “But not everyone could do it,” he said.
The people who could come out of the bus later told us that they sought help from other vehicles on the highway, but nobody stopped, he added.
“Many accidents take place on this route at Pimpalkhuta. We were called for help and when we went there, we saw the horrible situation. The tyres had fallen apart,” the local resident said.
“People inside were trying to break the windows. We saw people getting burnt alive…The fire was so intense that we could not do anything. We were in tears…,” he said.
Had the vehicles passing by the highway stopped for help, more lives could have been saved, he added. Eight survivors of the bus tragedy have been rushed to a nearby hospital and are safe, police said.
