AURANGABAD: Four nursing students and their driver were killed when their car hit a speeding Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus head-on in Latur district around 9am on Tuesday. A fifth student, Priyanka Bansod, sustained serious injuries in the accident and is battling for life.
The deceased students were identified as Komal Kernade (21) of Mukhed, Nanded, Alok Khedkar (22) of Udgir, Latur, Amol Devkate (23) and Yashomati Deshmukh (21). The driver was identified as Nagesh Gundewad (28).
The accident took place at Haibatpur on the Lohara-Udgir road, about 315km from here, when the students were returning to Udgir after paying obeisance at the Tulja Bhavani temple in Tuljapur, Osmanabad district.
Authorities said the MSRTC bus was headed to Chakur from Udgir. Such was the impact of the collision that the front wheel of the bus was mangled and pushed several feet under the body.
Senior police officers, including Latur superintendent of police Nikhil Pingale, went to the accident spot. The police along with villagers struggled to extricate the bodies of the victims from the damaged car. The local police said an offence has been registered against the bus driver for negligent and rash driving.
Udgir sub-division police officer Daniel Benn said the students had hired the car to go to the Tuljapur temple. “The students were doing their internship with a local hospital in Udgir. Most of them lived in a hostel,” he said. The accident caused a traffic snarl on the highway. It took the police a couple of hours to clear the traffic.
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