Four killed, 10 injured as bus-tanker collision triggers fire on Gujarat highway

A private sleeper bus caught fire following a collision with an asphalt-laden tanker on the Chotila-Rajkot National Highway in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district

Published on: May 14, 2026, 14:05:56 IST

By Maulik Pathak, Ahmedabad

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At least four persons were charred to death and 10 others were injured after a private sleeper bus caught fire following a collision with an asphalt-laden tanker on the Chotila-Rajkot National Highway in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The collision triggered a fire that spread rapidly through the vehicle, gutting it completely, police said.

The bus, operated by Madhuram Travels, was travelling from Ahmedabad to Junagadh with more than 25 passengers on board when it rammed into the tanker from behind near Sangani village in Chotila taluka around 1:30 am. The collision triggered a fire that spread rapidly through the vehicle, gutting it completely.

“The asphalt-laden tanker was moving ahead of the bus when its tyre burst in the middle of the road. Four people have died and 10 others have been hospitalised,” said Surendranagar Superintendent of Police Prem Sukh Delu.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Chotila) S.S. Bhadoriya said the bus and the tanker were both moving on the highway when the tanker’s tyre burst, causing it to brake suddenly, after which the bus rammed into it from behind.

The driver of the tanker fled the spot after the accident. The four bodies were so badly charred that visual identification was not possible, and DNA testing would be required, he added.

Police said the driver of the bus and a woman passenger seated behind him are believed to be among the four deceased. Locals broke open the windows of the burning bus to rescue trapped passengers.

Police, fire brigade, and rescue teams reached the spot and brought the blaze under control.

The injured were shifted to hospitals in Rajkot and Chotila, while the bodies were sent to Chotila Referral Hospital for postmortem examination.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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