ROURKELA: Six passengers were killed and 16 others suffered injuries after a Koida-bound bus collided head-on with an iron-ore laden truck on NH-520 in Bonai sub-division of Sundargarh district on Thursday.
Six critically injured passengers were shifted to Rourkela for treatment. The fatal mishap took place at Sanambudu under K Balang police limits - 72 km from Rourkela - between 11.15 am and 11.30 am. While three female and two male passengers died on the spot, another woman succumbed to her injuries at Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH).
DIG (western range) Brijesh Kumar Rai confirmed the death of six passengers of the bus. Seventeen others including the truck driver were injured and six with critical injuries were shifted to Rourkela, he informed.
As per preliminary investigation, the bus made lateral entry on NH-520 from wrong side leading to the mishap. Sources said such was the impact of the collision that the front body of the bus got stuck into the truck. The door was partially blocked to initially delay rescue of the injured passengers.
Investigation revealed that due to congestion on the highway, with traffic moving slow near a roadside dhaba, the bus driver moved out of the travel lane and took to the shoulder of the highway.
After overtaking several other vehicles, the driver tried to make a sudden lateral entry back to the travel lane of the NH, only to end up ramming into the truck coming from the opposite direction. After the incident, local residents and commuters rushed to evacuate the injured passengers and informed the police.
The deceased were identified as Pushpa Ghosh (56), Merry Nag (50), Satyabhama Thakur (55), Karampal Singh (45) and Sabar Bal (52). They all died on the spot. Another woman, Suru Munda (46), perished at the RGH.