17 passengers injured as private luxury bus rams truck on Samruddhi Expressway

Nagpur: As many as 17 passengers sustained injuries after a private luxury bus collided with a truck on the Samruddhi Expressway near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in the wee hours of Wednesday.
“There were 30 passengers in the bus, besides two drivers and a cleaner. Nine passengers and the bus driver were seriously injured while eight passengers sustained minor injuries,” superintendent (highway patrol police) Anita Jamadar told TOI.
Preliminary probe revealed that the bus driver lost control and rammed the vehicle into the rear side of the trailer truck.
This is the second major accident on the expressway involving a private bus within a fortnight. On July 1, 25 passengers were charred to death when a private bus they were travelling in caught fire after crashing into a median barrier on the expressway near Pimpalkhuta in Sindkhed Raja taluka of Buldhana district.
In the accident that occurred on Wednesday, the Pune-bound bus (MH38X8027) of Khurana Travels had started from Nagpur while the trailer truck (MH21BH3516) laden with iron bars had entered the expressway from Jalna while on its way to Surat, said police.
Police said the accident occurred under the Phulambri police station limits at around 2.20am. The bus’s cabin was completely damaged due to the impact mangled and the iron bars pierced the cabin of the sleeper coach.
Those who have been seriously injured were identified as Prajwal Sanjay Shende (24), Vikrant Ramnath Neware (34), both residents of Nagpur, Chetan Namritwar, Varsha Bhave, Disha Vajrani, Anjali Jumare, Atul Jumare, Bhavesh Vajrani and bus driver Shaikh Yunus. They were admitted to a private hospital while other injured passengers were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital at Sambhajinagar, said the SP.
Police said the accident alert was received at 2.30am, the rescue team reached the spot within five minutes. It took almost 2 hours for the cops to complete the rescue operation, including hospitalisation of the injured passengers and shifting the ill-fated vehicles from the expressway.