Six people were killed and 26 others injured as the private Volvo bus they were travelling in fell into a roadside trench near Ittigatti on the Hubli-Dharwad bypass around 5 am on Friday. The bus was going to Bangalore from Mumbai.
Though the actual reason for the accident is yet to be ascertained, the police suspect that the driver must have lost control over the bus while overtaking another vehicle. The driver fled the spot after the accident.
The deceased included Vijaya Bahaddur Mourya (57) and his wife Manna (43) from Haryana, Gopinath Muppa (26) from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and Manoranjan Nanda (35) from Uttar Pradesh. One body could not be identified because it was badly mutilated.
The bodies were shifted to the Dharwad District Hospital for post mortem, and the injured were admitted to the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli. Barring one, all the injured are said to be out of danger. Dharwad Rural police have registered a case.