A trailer carrying iron sheets rammed into a passenger bus on Monday morning at Taimara Ghati in Ranchi district, 38 km south-west of the state capital, killing 22 people and injuring more than 30 others.
The sleeper coach carrying 64 passengers had been developing a snag here and a
breakdown there ever since it left Jamshedpur at 7 pm on Sunday.
“I was sleeping in the driver's cabin when a jerk woke me up. Next thing I knew my head was hit the windshield of the bus,” said one of the survivors 24-year-old Priya Ranjan.
The victims were all rushed to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.
On learning about the incident, Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda, who was on his way to Gujarat to attend chief minister Narendra Modi's fast, rushed to the capital Ranchi.
He announced Rs. 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to the injured.