UP: 15 dead, 25 hurt after truck rams bus in Barabanki district

Lucknow: At least 15 persons were killed and 26 injured in a head-on collision between a double-decker bus and a speeding truck on Kisan Path in Baburi village in Barabanki, a district wracked by triple tragedies in three months on its killer highways.
Earlier, more than 20 people were killed in back-to-back accidents in Ramsnehi Ghat and Nawabanj areas of the district.
The bus with 70 passengers on board was on its way to Bahraich from Delhi, when the crash took place early Thursday in Dewa police limits. While bodies of nine men, two women and three children were identified, the identity of a dismembered body could not be ascertained, police said. Of the 26 injured 11 were rushed to Trauma centre, Lucknow, four others sent to Barabanki district hospital and the remaining discharged after first aid. Police said, all passengers had boarded from Delhi and were headed to their homes in Bahraich, Gonda and Barabanki districts ahead of Dussehra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to kin of deceased and Rs 50,000 to injured.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to tragedy-hit families and Rs 50,000 to the injured. He also directed officials to expedite relief work. Superintendent of police, Barabanki, Yamuna Prasad, said, the driver of the Lucknow-bound truck lost control while swerving past a stray bovine and crashed into the bus. An eyewitness, Chetram, of Baburi village told TOI he was awake at the crack of dawn, when a thud shattered the early morning silence. Chetram, who made the first SOS call to UP 112, said, “My house is located across the highway and when I walked down to the street, I heard screams from the mangled heap of the doubledecker bus.” Police swiftly began rescue operations and extricated bodies. Another villager, Shadab, used gas-cutters to cut through the wrecked metal to pull out the dead and injured. An FIR was lodged against unidentified persons for causing death by negligence and rash driving. “Accountability will be fixed after a technical inspection both vehicles,” said Prasad.