Kalaburagi accident: Bus burnt fully in 5 minutes, says survivor

HYDERABAD: Sudheer, one of the survivors of the bus accident in Kalaburagi, said all the passengers were asleep, but some woke up on hearing a loud thud as the bus collided with a van. They shouted for help as the bus overturned. Some passengers broke the rear window and jumped out to save themselves. Within 5-6 minutes, the bus was fully burnt, Sudheer told police.Outside, eyewitnesses saw the bus catch fire, but nobody could go near the burning vehicle.
Survivors broke window glass, jumped off
The bus that caught fire at Kamalapur was carrying 34 passengers, including 30 from the same extended family.
Sudheer, one of the survivors who filed a police complaint at Kamalapur, said they left for Goa on the AC sleeper bus on May 28. They went to the beaches and had a lovely time. They boarded the bus on the evening of June 2 to return. He said when the bus caught fire, several of them were asleep. Some woke up on hearing a loud thud. They shouted for help as the bus overturned. Then some passengers broke the rear window and jumped out.
Sudheer said the local people helped them escape. Within 5-6 minutes, the bus was fully burnt, he told police.
Kamalapur residents Anil Suntnur and Rajesh said they were going down the route when "we heard a loud thud. When we reached the spot, some passengers were emerging from a broken bus window. But we all were unable to go near the bus as the fire was huge, covering about 50 m around the vehicle."
"We managed to rescue 5-6 passengers by pulling them out of the windows. Firefighters arrived and doused the flames," one of them said.
Anil said that even after the fire was doused, the heated, mangled metal made it impossible to identify the bodies. But one of the bodies was of a child. "We could identify only the kid," he said. "Most of the passengers on the upper sleeper coach escaped by breaking the windows. But there were passengers asleep in front who got stuck. They died," the eyewitnesses said.
Police have made arrangements to shift the injured to a private hospital. Co-passengers alleged that the bus was moving at a high speed and some passengers had told the driver to slow down several times, but he did not heed their word.