One dies, driver, conductor, a passenger missing as ST bus swept away in Yavatmal

Yavatmal: A Maharashtra State Road Transport Corpoation (MSRTC) bus was washed away while crossing a overflowing bridge over a nullah at Dahegaon village in Yavatmal district between Umarkhed and Pusad on Tuesday morning.
Rivers and mullah are overflowing in the district due to heavy rains in the last two days. Sources said the bus (MH 14/BT-5018) belonging to Nagpur depot was coming to Nagpur from Nanded.When the bus reached the Dahegaon village, 8km from Umarkhed, the driver didn’t care about the overflowing bridge on a nullah and allegedly decided to drive through the flood waters. But the bus lost control and fell on one side and got swept away.
There were 7-8 persons, including the driver and the conductor, in the bus, said sources and added two of the passengers managed to cling to a tree while two others managed to climb over the bus. “One body has been recovered while the driver, conductor and one passenger are reportedly missing,” said district collector Amol Yedge.
The tehsildar and police from Umarkhed reached the spot and are supervised the rescue operation. Divisional controller Avinash Rajurkar has confirmed the incident and said that rescue operation is in progress.
Collector Yedge said that all the rivers in the district are overflowing and the dams are 100% full. He urged people not to venture into flood waters or overflowing nullahs. “People residing along banks of rivers should remain alert,” he said.
“Instructions have been given to officers of all the tehsils to take utmost care to avoid any untoward incidents like the one occurred in Dehegaon,” the collector said. He has, however, not in a position to spell out the loss of life in the accident.