"Broke the window and escaped...": Maharashtra bus accident survivor narrates experience

Fire fighters inspecting the vehicle. Pic/PTI

Eight people survived the fatal bus accident in Maharashtra's Buldhana which claimed the lives of 25 passengers in the wee hours of Saturday. One of the survivors narrated how he and a few other passengers managed to come out of the burning vehicle by breaking its rear window.

"I boarded the Vidarbha Travels bus from Nagpur for Aurangabad. The bus overturned and caught fire immediately after it met with an accident on the Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway. 3 to 4 people broke the window and escaped, and soon after there was a blast in the bus," Yogesh Ramdas Gavai, a survivor of the Buldhana bus accident said.

Chitra Dagdale, a relative of Avanti Pohnekar (Wardha) who was killed in the bus accident said, "Avanti has recently completed her BE, she had left from Wardha yesterday evening to find a job in Pune. I spoke to her when she was leaving her home. This morning when I heard the cry of her mother, then I came to know about this accident."

Anil Jangle, brother of Sherya Wanjari, who died in bus accident said, "Sherya and her friend Radhika Kharse left Wardha for Pune at 7.30 pm yesterday. In the morning we came to know about the accident. Both of them used to work in Pune."

Buldhana Commissioner Nidhi Pande visited Deval Goan Rural Hospital and met the injured. The accident took place at around 1:30 am on Saturday on the Samruddhi-Mahamarg Expressway in Maharashtra's Buldhana. "The bus driver and conductor have been taken into custody by police," said Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan earlier today.

"The bus was travelling from Nagpur to Pune when it met with an accident at around 1:30 am. The driver said that the accident took place after a tyre burst, leading to flames in the bus. Later the diesel tank of the vehicle caught fire. There are three children among those who died and the rest are adults. The exact reason for the accident has not yet been ascertained," Buldhana Superintendant of Police (SP) Sunil Kadasane told reporters.

According to police, a total of 33 people were travelling in the bus which was on its way to Pune. The bus owner, Virendra Darna, also said that the tyre burst caused the accident.

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