Two persons were killed and 15 others injured when an inter-State private bus overturned, allegedly due to rash and negligent driving, on National Highway 75 on the outskirts of Mulbagal on Wednesday.
The deceased have been identified as Shariff and his wife Maimunnissa from Vijayawada. The injured have been admitted to the Mulbagal government hospital for treatment.
The bus, belonging to a private company, was heading from Vijayawada to Bengaluru carrying as many as 30 passengers. The driver and the conductor escaped soon after the accident.
The Mulbagal rural police rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operations. The police have taken up a case and efforts are on to track down the driver and the conductor for further investigation.
Additional Commissioner (enforcement) of Transport Department C. Mallikarjuna said that reckless driving by the driver is suspected to have resulted in the accident.
“It is suspected that the driver was driving the vehicle recklessly and while negotiating the barricade that was put up, he lost control over the vehicle. Luckily, there were no other vehicles nearby. Otherwise the impact would have been much worse,” the official said.
The official said 10 days ago, at Nangali checkpost, the RTO official had seized a bus run by the same operator for permit violations. The officials said, “For various violations, we had seized 12 private buses at Nangali and 3 in Indiranagar recently. Enforcement drive will continue against the violators.
