2 killed, 29 injured in a road accident near Tirupati

TIRUPATI: Two persons were killed in a ghastly road mishap involving two buses at Kasipentla village in Chandragiri mandal of Chittoor district early on Wednesday.
The incident happened near the Heritage Foods plant on the Puthalapattu Naidupet highway, 28 km from here, when the APSRTC’s Amaravati bus from Vijayawada to Kuppam rammed head on into a private travels bus proceeding from Sabarimala towards Nalgonda in Telangana.
The bus hired by Ayyappa devotees had started at Dindi in Nalgonda district on Jan 4 and was on its return journey when the mishap occurred.
Chandragiri police, along with rescue teams, rushed to the spot and extricated the bodies from the bus, which resembled a mangled mass of metal. Gas cutters and welding equipment were used to separate the vehicles that got entangled under the impact of the collision.
The deceased were identified as the Amaravati bus driver Ramesh, belonging to Penamalur, and the coach attendant Prasad, hailing from Vuyyuru, both in Krishna district.
As the ambulances were found to be insufficient to shift the injured to the SVRR government general hospital in Tirupati, those with mild injuries were transported with the help of passing trucks. The private bus driver was rushed into the ICU for an emergency surgery.
Traffic came to a standstill for up to a kilometre on either side of the spot on the busy highway, which was cleared with great difficulty. Navigating this stretch is already a Herculean task, due to the widening work in progress on the proposed six lane highway.
Chittoor district collector Dr Narayana Bharat Gupta rushed to the SVRR government hospital and consoled the injured. He directed the hospital staff to ensure the best of medical care is rendered to the 29- odd persons injured in the mishap.