HYDERABAD: In a horrifying case of negligence, a BITS Pilani alumni took to social media to narrate the ordeal he was put through by Orange Travels, a private travel company. The group had allegedly refused to send across medical help, after the bus he was travelling in met with an accident. The incident occurred on July 1. The said bus, travelling from Raipur to Hyderabad, had reportedly crashed into a median near Telangana-Maharashtra border. While all the passengers were thrown off their seats, the complainant Arpit Sharma fainted from the trauma and fell on glass shards. This left him with severe bleeding injuries across his face and head.
Speaking to Express, Arpit said: “I was sleeping when I was woken up by a loud scream from a woman passenger. I walked towards the exit to see what was going on, and saw that the front glass of the bus was completely smashed. I immediately went into shock and fainted. Unfortunately, I ended up falling on shards of the glass, which cut through my face.”
As soon as Arpit regained consciousness, he made a call to the customer care of the travels. However, he was unable to reach them as the signals were low. However, a group of locals who had gathered in the area offered their phones to the passengers. “We had all called the customer care for help. But they refused to send any medical help. Their office in Adilabad was only 20 km away. Yet they refused to send help,” added Arpit.
The complainant, who was bleeding profusely at the time, also stated that there was no medical box available in the bus to dress the wound and stop the bleeding. Later on, he was taken to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad, where he was given basic treatment.
Meanwhile, Orange Travels maintained that they were unaware of the situation. They, however, stated that they would initiate an enquiry at the earliest on the matter. Call Centre Manager from Orange Travels Praveen Kumar said that they were not informed about the incident by the bus driver and that, if informed, they would have sent help at the earliest.