Five people were charred to death as their car caught fire after slamming into a bus on the Yamuna Expressway on Monday.
The car that was headed towards Noida rammed into the bus as it appeared to be turning back. The bus also caught fire and passengers had to jump out of the vehicle to save themselves.
“The accident took place on Monday morning near 117 Milestone of Yamuna Expressway within limits of Mahawan police station of Mathura district. “Both the vehicles were headed towards Noida from Agra,” said Shailesh Dubey, the senior superintendent of police (SSP), Mathura.
“The sleeper coach coming from Gaya in Bihar was found blocking the passage connecting Agra with Noida. After the collision, those in the bus got sufficient time to move out of the bus but those in the car weren’t as lucky and were charred to death,” the SSP said.
The victims were identified as Sarbar Hussain (32), Himanshu Yadav (26), Zayad Khan (25), Shiv Kishan Rawat (26) and car driver Anshuman Yadav (28). They were all coming from their native Firozabad district. Four of them lived in Govind Puri locality of Delhi.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed his grief at the incident and ordered local officials to ensure all help to the needy. Police said it isn’t yet clear why the bus was turning back.
In the morning, police officials had said a flat tyre forced the vehicle to lose balance and swerved towards the right.
Those in the bus, however, gave a different version.
Satya Prakash, a bus passenger said that the bus had stopped at an eatery on Yamuna Expressway. “Just then the bus cleaner asked the driver to turn back as he had spotted some blockade ahead. The driver disagreed with the advice and said turning back would be risky due to fog-induced low visibility.”
“Finally, the driver of the bus agreed to turn back and as he did so, a car collided near the fuel tank of the bus and caught fire. We had to rush out to save ourselves,” Satya Prakash said.
The speed limit on Yamuna Expressway has been reduced to 75 kilometers per hour for light vehicles and 60 km/hour for heavy vehicles. This restriction will continue till February 15.