12 school kids, bus driver dead in Etah road accident

ETAH: Twelve children, many of them not even 10 years old, died along with the driver of a school bus in Etah on Thursday in what must be one of the most horrifying accidents on UP roads in recent memory. Two of the 12 kids who died were sisters -- one in class 9, the other in 10 -- going to school on a cycle, their only fault taking the deadly road to class.
Twenty-four others have sustained what doctors called "serious injuries" as the speeding school bus, which had a capacity of 27 but was carrying 62 students, rammed into a truck coming from the opposite direction at a stretch of fog-enveloped road in Aliganj, Etah district. The collision happened at about 8 am, eyewitnesses who rushed the dead and injured students, many of them weeping for their friends, to hospital said.
The victims have been identified as Sunny Kumar (14), Lavish Kumar (12), Radha Chauhan (16), Shalini Chauhan (14), Vikas (7), Krishna (10), Himanshu (8), Deeksha Singh (7), Rishab (8), Anuj Babu (8), Pankaj (8), Shivani (8), and the as yet unidentified bus driver.
The school bus, which belonged to J S Vidya Niketan, was not even supposed to be on the road, what with the district magistrate Shambhu Nath ordering a three-day holiday due to severe cold wave in the region.
Ravinder Singh, father of 7-year-old Deeksha, said, “Despite the DM's announcement that schools needed to be shut, the school administration was still running classes. Why was that decision taken? My kid boarded the bus at around 6.30 am, but she will never return now."
Dinesh Singh Rathore, a local resident who was among the first to reach the accident spot, said, “The little victims had no chance. Many were trapped so badly in the mangled bus that it took us a long while just to extricate them." He added, with a shudder, "Some of the children's bodies were cut in half."
The impact of the accident was such that over 10 tonnes of sand laden in the truck was found scattered at least 20 meters away. The driver of the truck and cleaner, both of whom were injured, are recuperating in a Saifai hospital.
Nitin Kumar, another rescuer at the spot, said, “The first ambulance reached the site after an hour. Several men tried to make a distress call to 'UP 100', the quick response team, but the number was busy. Finally, the station officer of Raja Ka Rampur (Sanjeev Kumar Sharma), under whose jurisdiction the area of the accident falls, responded and reached out.”
J S Vidya Niketan, the Aliganj school owned by one Yograj Singh, allegedly has no affiliation with any board and neither had it obtained any permit for the school bus from the RTO. Sub-divisional magistrate, Aliganj, Mohan Singh said, “We will investigate the matter about the school affiliation and will file an FIR against them, if found guilty.”
IG (Agra zone) Sujeet Pandey said, “We are waiting for a report from the Basic Siksha Adhikari on allegations that the school violated the DM's official announcement of holiday. Once confirmed, an FIR will be filed against them.”
Station officer Sharma said that an FIR has been lodged against truck driver Yogendar under IPC sections 279 (rash driving), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304 A (causing death by negligence).