BENGALURU: Five passengers, including two children, died and 15 others sustained injuries when an Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus coming to the city from Tirupati rammed into a truck at Gottipura Gate in Hosakote taluk on the Old Madras Road around 1.50 am on Friday.
The police said the bus driver was attempting to overtake the truck while speeding and rammed into it. The right portion of the bus, where all the victims were seated behind the driver, was completely damaged. Of the five, four were declared dead on arrival at hospitals, while one succumbed to injuries at a private hospital in Hosakote around 1 pm. The condition of the bus driver, V L K Babu, is critical. The injured are undergoing treatment in various private hospitals in Hosakote.
“The bus driver, who was speeding, was unable to overtake the lorry properly and hit it from the right side. The bodies were shifted to the Hosakote Government Hospital for postmortem,” said an officer.
The deceased have been identified as Keshavulu Reddy (44), Tulasi alias Tanu (21), a B. Tech student; eleven-month-old Yuthwik, son of Hari Babu; Pragathi (4), daughter of Janardhan Reddy, a laborer; and Sharada (43), a homemaker. All the deceased were from Chittoor and were staying in JP Nagar and Jayanagar in the city.
Madan Mohan Reddy, a passenger, told the media that they boarded the bus in Chittoor at 11 pm. The bus was supposed to arrive at 9 pm, but it came two hours later. “Many passengers were fast asleep when a loud sound woke them up. Four of them died on the spot in the collision,” he added.