Five dead, 40 injured as bus topples in Tumakuru district

BENGALURU: Five men were killed and 40 others injured when a private bus they were travelling in toppled near Koratagere town in Tumakuru district on Wednesday morning.
Preliminary investigation revealed the bus driver sought to avoid ramming an autorickhsaw that negligently came in his path, resulting in the accident.
The bus, belonging to Vijayalakshmi Travels, was heading to Koratagere from Tumakuru and had covered some 22km when a negligently driven autorickshaw entered the main road near Jatti Agrahara around 9am.The bus driver swerved to a side to avoid hitting the auto. The vehicle with 55 passengers, including 15 women and 10 schoolchildren, toppled on its left and was dragged for about 100 feet before coming to a halt. The autorickshaw narrowly escaped from being hit.
Five men standing on the footboard died of head injuries. While the children escaped unhurt, five women and 35 men sustained bruise and cut injuries, police said. The autorickshaw driver abandoned the vehicle and took to his heels.
Police arrested bus driver Imran Khan of Madhugiri and seized the vehicle. According to records, the bus is owned by one Sujata Jagannath, a resident of Raghavendra Colony in Madhugiri.
According to police, the documents of the bus were all in place and up-to-date. “We have asked RTO officials to share details of the condition of the bus when they inspected it before issuing the fitness certificate (FC),” said police.
The deceased are Shivakumar alias Shiva, 42, of Palamachi; Imran Pasha, 20, of Gerahalli; Akram Pasha, 19, of Holavanahalli and Veeranna of Palamachi. The accident site was only 5km from Madhugiri.
“Not only did the auto driver come to the middle of the road from a cross road, but he also drove in a zigzag manner,” eyewitnesses said.
Police looking for auto driver
Tumakuru police said they are looking for the auto driver. “Many passengers told us that the auto driver was responsible for the accident. We found that the auto belonged to a person in Madhugiri and the sub-inspector of Koratagere police station has been tasked with nabbing the driver,” a senior police officer said.