SHIVAMOGGA: An educational tour turned tragic for high school students and staff of Poornaprajna Education Center in Bhadravathi as a girl was killed and 22 students and three teachers were injured when a school bus with at least 45 students aboard overturned near Savatikere village in N R Pura taluk of Chikkamagaluru district in the wee hours of Saturday.
The deceased has been identified as Diya Shekhawat (15). Overcoming the grief caused by the death of the girl, her parents reportedly donated the eyes and kidneys of their daughter. Sources said that Diya’s father is a military officer and the family hails from Rajasthan.
The injured have been admitted to a private hospital in Shivamogga city. N R Pura police told Express that of the injured one girl has lost her one of the hands. The injured have been identified as Yashasvi, Vikram Patil, Disha, Kishan, Gagandeep, Sumukh, Vaishnavi, Vilas, Tejaswi, Prateeksha, Keerthi, Tapasvi, Aishwarya, Manasi, Sanjana V Udupa, Shreya Jain, Vamshika Jain, Meghana, Kushal, Sushan, B R Om Prabha and Nandini.
Nandini’s hand got cut off and the doctors are trying to fix it again. The injured teachers have been identified as Shreekanth, Rupesh Kumar and Seeta Lakshmi. The police said that a total of 94 students of the 10th class were travelling on two buses to Sringeri, Karkala, Manipal, Malpe and Saint Mary’s island and were scheduled to halt in Udupi. The school is run by Adamar Mutt of Udupi.
The police said that the accident occurred when the driver, identified as Gireesh, lost the control of the vehicle and hit an electricity pole before the bus overturned. He has also sustained minor injuries. The bus (KA 49-1529) was owned by Rakesh Tourist.
Teacher Rupesh said that the buses left Bhadravathi at 5.30 am and the ill-fated bus met with the accident at around 6 am. Student Sanjana said that the driver was driving the vehicle at speed. The teachers said that none of the students was told about the death of their classmate Diya as they would panic.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner K A Dayanand visited the hospital and enquired about the condition of the injured. The DC also directed the officials of the health department to be at the hospital to extend help and submit a report.