UP: 12 school children killed in bus-lorry collision in Etah

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Officials said the bus, with a capacity of 27 passengers, was carrying at least 43 students to accommodate those left behind after another school van failed to turn up. Officials said that the school — JS Vidya Niketan — had also violated directions that required all schools to not conduct classes up to Class 8 due to the cold wave in the region.

Police have identified those dead as Himanshu (9), Vikas (5), Lavish (11), Sunny (14), Anuj (10), Shivani (11), Kishan (8), Pankaj (13), Radhika (15) and her sister Shalini (13), Nikky (12), Deeksha (9) and Rishabh (6), all students of KG to Class 10.

Ten of them and the driver Akash (40) died on the spot while one child died in hospital. At least 25 children have suffered serious injuries, said police.

Police said cases have been registered against the school owners, Sujit Kumar and Ajit Kumar, both brothers, principal Govind Srivastava and the truck driver, identified as Yogendra Singh, who is undergoing treatment at Saifai Medical College. Police said the school owners are absconding.

Officials added that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had ordered that the recognition granted to the school, located in Aliganj, be cancelled and stern action initiated against its owner.

The Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) has also been asked to prepare a report of the violations committed by the school, a residential facility. “I was driving at a speed of 20 km when two school girls on bicycles suddenly appeared on the road. When I turned the steering slightly to save the kids, the truck hit the school bus,” Singh, the truck driver, told The Indian Express.

Doctors at the Saifai Medical College said that the condition of three of the six children admitted there was critical.

Officials, meanwhile, said that confusion persisted over the number of children undergoing treatment as doctors at the Aliganj Community Health Care (CHC) claimed to have referred around 20 to Saifai, 75 km away, where only six turned up. “The others must have be taken to private hospitals by their parents,” said Dr R C Pandey, in-charge, Aliganj CHC.

The father of one of the children killed alleged that he had complained previously about “rash driving” by the school bus driver. “I had told the school principal that the bus driver drives too fast. But they never cared,” claimed Ram Sewak, father of Vikas (5) from Tikaitpura village.

IG, Agra Zone, Sujeet Pandey, told The Indian Express that police were tracking the status of victims referred to other districts, including Agra, Aligarh, Saifai and Farrukhabad.