Agra: A two-tiered ‘sleeper bus’ on its way from Lucknow to Delhi skidded off the Yamuna Expressway and plunged about 20 feet into a drain in the early hours of Monday, killing 29 people and injuring 18, officials said.
The accident took place at 4.30 am in Etmadpur, about 200 km from Delhi, when the Uttar Pradesh Roadways bus broke through the safety railing at high speed and hurtled down into the Jharna Nala, which had about six to eight feet of water, they said.
Screams of passengers trapped inside the bus could be heard in the still of the pre-dawn darkness. As news of the tragedy spread, people from Chaugan village nearby rushed to rescue the survivors, many of whom were in deep sleep when the accident occurred, eyewitnesses said.
Two boys practising high speed running for recruitment to the forces told the media that they saw the bus fall and paced up to join in the rescue. Nihal Singh, in the field to answer the call of nature, added that he was the first to see the accident.
Other villagers, too, joined in to do whatever possible, losing no time to help save those injured and extricate the bodies, some of which were swept away in the dirty waters of the drain. The injured were rushed to different hospitals, including a private health facility, in the district, the officials said. The operation to pull out the mangled remains of the bus — the roof was ripped off when it fell from the bridge — took several hours, with two excavators and a crane being deployed.
Officials blamed the driver for over speeding while some survivors said he lost control as he may have fallen asleep. “One sleeper coach passenger bus travelling from Lucknow to Delhi met with an accident on Yamuna Expressway,” the Uttar Pradesh Police said on Twitter.
