Warangal: 40 hurt as driver leaves steering to eat gutka

Warangal: Negligence on the part of a bus driver caused a major accident near P.V. Nagar of Malhar mandal in Jayashankar Bhupalapally district on Wednesday.

As many as 40 passengers’ sustained injuries and 10 of them were severely wounded. The bus was on its way from Godavarikhani to Bhupalpally.

According to the passengers, the driver of the bus P. Srinivas Reddy had let go of the steering wheel to consume gutka. The bus was travelling at a good speed and at the time of the incident it was on a bridge over the Manair
river.

The driver panicked when he saw a lorry come from the opposite direction. In a bid to avoid hitting it, he turned the steering too much, lost control and ended up driving it into a roadside ditch at the end of the bridge. The bus fell
into the ditch and turned turtle.

Jayashankar Bhupalpally police superintendent R. Bhaaskaran rushed to the spot and monitored the rescue operation. Apart from the ambulances, police vehicles also helped in shifting the injured to the nearest hospitals. The
driver of the bus ran away from the spot after the accident and is yet to be traced.

The injured were shifted to government hospitals in Kataram, Mahadevpur and those with severe injuries were shifted to the MGM hospital in Warangal. Jayashankar Bhupalpally collector Vasam Venkateshwarlu, visited the
injured at Kataram and Mahadevpur.

He expressed his anger as at the Kataram Hospital, the duty doctor Uma Devi was not present at her station when the injured were brought.

Similarly, the superintendent of the Mahadevpur hospital Vasudeva Reddy was absent without leave.