15 killed as bus with labourers hits truck in MP

REWA: Fifteen persons were killed and 40 others injured after an Uttar Pradesh-bound private bus, mostly carrying labourers going home for Diwali, rammed into a trailer-truck from behind in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.

The accident occurred around 11.30 pm on Friday near Teonthar town, when the bus was going to Gorakhpur from Hyderabad. The bus, a sleeper coach, was negotiating a mountain road in Sohagi ghati, about 60 km from the district headquarters, when it rammed into the trailer-truck from behind on NH-30, Rewa Superintendent of Police (SP) Navneet Bhasin said.

The trailer-truck suddenly applied brakes after it hit another vehicle ahead of it, due to which the bus crashed into the truck, he said. “Fifteen people were killed and 40 others injured in the accident. The victims were mostly labourers going home to Uttar Pradesh for Diwali. The bus also belonged to that state,” he said. The impact of the crash was so severe that the bodies of the bus driver and conductor had to be pulled out from the mangled front portion of the vehicle with the help of gas cutters, Bhasin said. Rewa District Collector Manoj Pushp said 12 persons were killed on the spot, and two others succumbed while being taken to a hospital from Teonthar to Rewa. Later, one more person died at the hospital in Rewa, he said.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the loss of lives. The PMO India in a tweet said, “The PM has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF for the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs 50,000.”