Driver dies as bus catches fire after being hit by truck on NH-48

Gurugram: A driver of a bus died when the heavy vehicle caught fire after an accident on the Delhi-Jaipur carriageway (National Highway NH-48) near Sidhrawali village in Bilaspur on Friday morning, police said

Gurugram: A driver of a bus died when the heavy vehicle caught fire after an accident on the Delhi-Jaipur carriageway (National Highway NH-48) near Sidhrawali village in Bilaspur on Friday morning, police said.

Gurugram, India-December 30, 2022: A bus, truck, and canter accident at National Highway-48 near Sidhrawali village; the bus driver burnt alive in this accident, in Gurugram, India, on Friday, 30 December 2022. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)(Pic to go with Debashish Karmakar's story)

Police said that four more persons, including the drivers of a truck and a tractor, which were also involved in the accident, were injured and are undergoing treatment at different hospitals.

According to investigators, the bus was returning to Gurugram after dropping more than 25 employees at a hydraulic equipment manufacturing plant in Patherheri, when the accident took place at about 6am.

Investigators said that the bus was negotiating a U-turn to reach the opposite lane, when the speeding truck hit it from behind. Police said that the impact of the collision was such that the bus rammed a tractor trolley and both the drivers of the bus and tractor trolley fell on a roadside ditch.

Police said that the accident caused CNG leakage and the bus’s front compartment immediately caught fire. The bus driver, identified as Rajan Kumar (32), allegedly sustained burn injuries, besides a severe cut on his head.

There were two employees of the firm inside the bus and they were pulled out of the vehicle by breaking a window pane by cleaner Rinku Kumar (20), before the entire bus was engulfed in flames.

The truck and the tractor drivers were also injured in the accident and they were rushed to separate hospitals along with the grievously injured bus driver. However, Kumar died on the way to the hospital, police added.

Investigators said that traffic on NH-48 was affected for at least 45 minutes due to the accident. They said that fire tenders reached the spot and doused the flames.

On the cleaners’ complaint, an FIR against the injured truck driver was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 304A (causing death by negligence) at Bilaspur police station later in the day.

Subhash Boken, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said action will be taken against the truck driver after he is discharged from the hospital.