Vijayawada accident: Medical students sought new driver

Vijayawada: The operator of the bus involved in Monday’s accident had violated several rules of the Road Transport Authority. The bus (AP28 TB 1166) is registered at the Hyderabad South Zone RTA office and is owned by one Mr Akbar Khan of Hyderabad.

“We are yet to identify the company operating the bus. As per the rules there should be a change of driver every eight hours of journey. But the operator did not provide an additional driver during the journey from Hyderabad to Amalapuram and the same driver drove the bus”, said Vijayawada RTA M. Purendra who initiated an inquiry into the incident.

The bus started at 11 am on Monday at Amalapuram and reached Vijayawada in the evening. The bus was sold to Dhanunjaya Travels by Sree Kaleswari Travels and later Dhanunjaya Travels sold it to Akbar Khan.

Read: Vijayawada accident: Two students in critical condition

Dhanunyaja Travels is not operating in Andhra Pradesh currently, officials said. However, the bus operator violated the rules by using the domain of Dhanunjaya Travels.

This deceived the medicos to opt for the bus. The students who called up the manager of the bus service were told that the driver would be changed at Ibrahimpatnam or Suryapet.

The students had even called up the travel operator at Hyderabad and had asked him to change the driver as he was drunk.

“They promised us to change him as soon as possible and the bus continued to head towards Hyderabad from Vijayawada. The bus operators ignored our multiple requests,” he said.

The accident took place at 11 pm. The students who died were final year student Macha Pranay Raja Ram, house surgeons Giri Laxman and Moka Vijay Teja and Vodanala Uday who had graduated recently. There were 46 medicos in the bus returning from a sports meet in KIMS in Amalapuram.

Vijayawada accident: Four of deceased top academics
The four deceased medicos were toppers in academics as well as sports. Giri Laxman of Adilabad, Moka Vijay Teja of Nizampet, Vodanala Uday of Karimnagar and Pranay Raja Ram of Hyderabad were part of the college basketball team and had been representing it at the Intermedex Men’s Sports Meet 2016 at Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Foundation, Amalapuram from March 10 to 13. 

“They stood runners up and were avid basketball players. It is unfortunate to become victims of someone else’s negligence”, said D. Kiran, classmate of the deceased who travelled to Vijayawada after the accident. The students were accompanied by Sandeep Kumar Jadhav, physical director of Osmania College.

Many OMC students came to the Andhra Hospital in Bhavanipuram and the GGH in Vijayawada to be with the injured and console the family.  They were accompanied by medicos of Siddhartha Medical College.