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Lucky to escape unhurt, say survivors of Nashik road accident
According to Pooja, most of the passengers were asleep hence they did not get much time to escape from the bus
“I don’t know what exactly happened. I can’t recollect everything, but there was a huge impact when the bus collided with the truck and there was chaos and fire... We are lucky to escape unhurt,” said Pooja Gaikwad, who was travelling with her two children and brother.
Gaikwad and her family members got into the bus at Washim and were travelling to Mumbai.
According to Pooja, most of the passengers were asleep hence they did not get much time to escape from the bus.
With the help of locals, Pooja and her family members managed to jump out of the window and escaped safely.
“Most of the passengers were struggling to come out of the bus which caught fire after the accident. Few escaped from the narrow windows,” she said.
Another passenger Ganesh Landge, who boarded the bus from Washim to reach Mumbai, said, “The bus caught fire after it hit the truck within few seconds. Some of us jumped out of the windows as there was no other exit route.”
Deepak Shinde, assistant driver of the bus, turned lucky as he had finished his duty at midnight on Saturday and went to rest in the back cabin.
“I woke up due to a loud noise of something clashing and there was fire everywhere. So, I jumped out of the window,” said Shinde. Later he recused two more co-passengers from the same window in which he sustained serious sinjuries.
At least 12 passengers, including a child, were killed, and 41 others injured, after a private luxury bus caught fire after hitting a truck early Saturday morning in Nashik.
According to police, the accident took place near Nandura Naka at around 5:15 am when the sleeper coach bus of a private tourist operator, Chintamani Travels, collided with a truck carrying coal.
After hitting the truck, the bus also hit a mini cargo van, due to which the latter got overturned.
According to the administration, the bus was carrying around 53 passengers, including the driver and one more person, far more than the actual number of seats.
