7 Killed 40 Injured As 2 Buses Collide In Surat 4 Critical

At least seven people on board a bus were killed and 40 others were injured after it caught fire following its head-on collision with another bus, near Badroli town in Gujarat’s Surat district on Tuesday afternoon, police said. Out of the 27 people hospitalised due to the accident, four were said to be in critical condition.

Both buses were operated by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) and belonged to a depot in the neighbouring Dhule district, they added. While one of them was bound for Surat from Dhule, the other was returning to Dhule from Surat.

Surat superintendent of police Rajesh Gadhiya said the Surat-to-Dhule bus first struck a tractor that was pulling a water tanker while on National Highway-53 at Una village in Badroli taluka. Then, it jumped the road divider and hit the Dhule-to-Surat bus, which turned over by the impact and caught fire, he added.

Locals and passersby gathered at the spot and began pulling people out of the two buses. Fire and police officials took over the rescue efforts soon after. Along with the SP, district collector Tejas Parmar also went to the spot.

Gadhiya said: “Seven deaths have been reported so far. Twenty-seven others, who were travelling from Dhule to Surat, were injured and hospitalised. The injured were taken to three hospitals: 15 to the government hospital in Bardoli, seven to the Sardar Smarak hospital in Bardoli, and five to the New Civil Hospital in Surat.”

Stating that all the dead were on board the Dhule-Surat bus, he added that it ran on compressed natural gas or CNG.

“We are in touch with the Maharashtra state transport department and are trying to identify the deceased. Our priority is to first ensure that all the injured passengers get immediate medical help, and the deceased are identified. We will register an offence in the incident. Four passengers are critical, while the remaining others are undergoing treatment for minor to major injuries.”

Meanwhile, district fire officer P B Gadhvi said that while six people died at the spot, another collapsed in a hospital. “When we arrived at the spot, we saw that the bus was on fire. We extinguished the fire and cut the body of the bus to rescue the injured, who were then rushed to hospitals in ambulances. While six people died on the spot, one (mostly the bus driver) was declared dead in the government hospital. Locals helped us in taking the injured to hospitals.”

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