Uttar Pradesh: 18 crushed in sleep as truck rams into bus in Barabanki

LUCKNOW: At least 18 migrant labourers were crushed to death in sleep and 25 critically injured when a speeding truck rammed into a stationary double-decker bus in Ramsanehi Ghat area of Barabanki, hours after midnight on Wednesday. The bus crammed with 140 labourers was on its way from Ludhiana to Bihar, when it broke down in the dead of night on National Highway 28 on the Barabanki-Ayodhya stretch.
With air-conditioning snapped and windows sealed, many passengers got off the stranded bus and dozed off on the road while the driver scrambled to fix the broken axle.
An hour later, a truck came in at blinding speed and collided head-on with the bus, crushing passengers asleep on the road and leaving the vehicle in a mangled heap. The Bihar-bound labourers were employed in factories at Ludhiana in Punjab, and Hisar in Haryana. While 11 died on the spot, seven were declared dead at the district hospital. Identities of two are yet to be ascertained and 11 of the injured were taken to Trauma Centre, Lucknow, said superintendent of police, Barabanki, Yamuna Prasad.
President Ram Nath Kovind, PM Modi, home minister Amit Shah, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar expressed grief at the loss of lives.
The PM announced Rs 2 lakh compensation to the kin of deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured and called up UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, to enquire on relief operations. The CM directed cabinet ministers to reach the hospital and oversee medical aid. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths and announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia to kin of each deceased.
BSP chief Mayawati asked the government to provide free treatment to the injured and send bodies home at government expense. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too appealed to the government to ensure treatment of the injured and sent party leaders to visit the injured at the hospital. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi urged party workers to provide aid to the accident victims.
Police said, drivers of both bus and truck were on the run. “Owner and manager of Rishabh Travels, which runs the air-conditioned bus and drivers of both vehicles have been booked for death by negligence, rash driving and under sections of Epidemic Act and Disaster Management Act,” said SP Barabanki.
Mishri Lal, 50, who survived the crash, told reporters he was asleep inside the bus when he was jolted and quaked. “I woke up to see passengers tossed onto the bus floor. When we managed to extricate ourselves out of the wreckage, we saw dismembered bodies strewn along the road and the injured crying in pain. We tried to stop passing vehicles, but to no avail. Then we blocked the highway with bodies, triggering a gridlock. It was then that a passer-by called the police,” he said. The complainant in the case and a fellow passenger, Falgun Sahni, 30 of Sitamarhi, said, the bus was overloaded and after its axle broke, the driver sought money from passengers for repairs.
After cops received the SOS, senior police and district officials rushed to the spot to launch rescue operations. District Magistrate of Barabanki, Adarsh Singh, supervised the rescue operation and arranged buses for other passengers to reach Bihar. “We formed a panel of doctors to conduct autopsies and simultaneously send the bodies to Bihar,” he said.
Eyewitnesses:
Neeraj Kumar, 18, of Sitamarhi said he along with his friends took a bus from Ludhiana, but when it reached Hisar in Haryana, the conductor stopped the vehicle midway and forced us into the ill-fated double decker bus standing nearby. Another injured, Shambhu, 29, of Madhubani, said passengers were forced to spread sheets and sleep on the road as it was stifling inside the bus with the windows sealed. “When it began raining, some of them took shelter under the bus,” he said.
Helpline number:
Barabanki police has issued a helpline number — 9454417464 — for any queries on the dead and injured.
The deceased who were identified include Suresh Yadav, 35, of Madhepura, Indal Mahato, 25, Gagandev 35, Rajdev Mahato, 60, Monu Sahni, 30, Jagdish, 40, Naresh, 37, Shanishchar, 50, Mastram Mandal, 60, (Sitamarhi residents), Sikandar Mukhiya 40, Akhilesh Mukhiya 30 of Saharsa, Jai Bahadur, 40, Baijnath Ram, 55, Balram Mandal, 55, from Supaul, Santosh Singh 30, Bauwa 30, both from Araria.