2 charred to death as bus rams truck on Agra e-way

Agra: A 48-year-old driver and a 60-year-old passenger were charred to death, while 14 others were injured after a double-decker sleeper bus rammed into an overturned sand-laden truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district around 2 am on Friday.According to eyewitnesses, the sand-laden dumper truck first rammed into the divider and overturned on the expressway. Moments later, the bus coming from behind crashed into the vehicle. Police said the bus, carrying 36 passengers, caught fire soon after the collision, triggering panic. Several passengers broke open windows and jumped out to save themselves as flames engulfed the bus.Six fire tenders were brought to the spot, and it took around three hours to bring the blaze under control, officials said. Mukesh, an injured passenger from Kanpur, said he was travelling to Vrindavan with his sister when the accident occurred. “We were asleep at the time of the crash. When I woke up, I saw blood coming from my leg. People were screaming and crying for help. I jumped out of the bus to save my life,” he said.Firozabad ASP Ravi Shankar Prasad told TOI, “The sleeper bus was travelling from Kanpur to Gurgaon. Driver Shambhu Barhai and passenger Dayashree Sahu, both residents of Kanpur, died in the accident. The bodies have been sent for postmortem.”Matsena police station SHO Vimlesh Kumar Pandey said, “Five injured passengers were admitted to Firozabad trauma centre, while others were referred to hospitals in Shikohabad and Saifai. Two people are still undergoing treatment, while the rest have been discharged. Families of the deceased have been informed.”