Drowsy driver rams bus with 30 onboard into truck in Hoskote; 5 killed, 16 injured | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Five persons, including two children, were killed in an accident, involving an Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus and a truck around 2am on Friday near Gottipura Gate in Hoskote taluk in Bengaluru Rural. At least 16 passengers were injured, and two among them are critical.Based on primary investigation, police said the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving by the bus driver, who was steering in a drowsy state. There were around 30 passengers on the bus. It was coming to the city from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. The truck was loaded with iron rods and was coming from Kolkata to Bengaluru.The deceased are identified as Yatvik, 11 months old, Pranathi, 5, Tulasi aka Tanu, 21, and Keshavulu Reddy, 44, all four from different villages of Chittoor district in AP, and Sharadha, 43, a resident of JP Nagar. Tulasi was a BTech student at a private college, Yatvik was the son of an ex-army personnel, Keshavulu was a labourer, while Sharadha was a homemaker.Bus was running 1.5 hour lateThe bus, after picking up passengers from Tirupati, reached Chittoor one-and-a-half hour late. When the bus was near Gottipura Gate on Kolar-Bengaluru highway around 1.50am, the bus driver tried to overtake the truck but rammed into it from behind. Due to the impact, the right side of the bus and roof got ripped out. The passengers who were sitting on the right side of the bus sustained severe injuries.The driver claimed to police that he was drowsy. One of the passengers, Madana Mohana Reddy, a resident of JP Nagar and a native of Chittoor, said, “The bus was supposed to reach Chittoor around 9.30pm, but it reached around 11pm. We were all sleeping around 2am when we heard a huge noise. When we opened our eyes, we didn’t find the roof of the bus. I was sitting in the fourth-row seat. I found my wife Dhanalakshmi with both legs almost severed. Five to six passengers were unconscious. Those who were not injured started helping the injured by pulling them out of the bus. The ambulances came after 15-20 minutes and shifted them to the hospital. My wife has lost both her legs, and she is in a critical condition.”A senior officer said around 16 persons were injured, two of them, including Dhanalakshmi, 37, and bus driver VLK Kumar, are in critical condition. All are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Hoskote.The driver of the truck, identified as Dinesh Biswas from Kolkata, told police he was supposed to unload the iron rods on Mysuru Road. The bus hit the truck from behind. He was scared of assault by the crowd and was hiding nearby. He approached the police after they shifted the injured persons to the hospital. The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their respective families after postmortem at a govt hospital in Hoskote. Both the drivers were not under the influence of alcohol. A case has been registered against both at Hoskote traffic police station based on a complaint filed by Madana Mohana Reddy.The police cleared the vehicles with the help of commuters by pushing them to the roadside.