Five persons, including a woman, were killed and eight sustained injuries in an accident involving three private buses on Ambala-Chandigarh Expressway in the early hours of December 27.
Two of the injured are said to be critical.
The buses on the way from Jammu to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi mostly carried labourers and devotees from Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Katra.
The accident took place near the multi-speciality Healing Touch Hospital on Sultanpur Chowk around 3 a.m. when one of the buses hit another parked on the expressway. The third bus coming from behind rammed the two buses already involved in the accident.
‘Driver dozed off’
“It seems the driver of the bus that hit the stationary bus dozed off causing the accident. The injured were taken to Civil Hospital and the Healing Touch Hospital. Two of the injured are critical,” said Traffic Police Assistant Sub-Inspector Shravan.
The accident took place in the jurisdiction of the Baldev Nagar police station.
Androz Kumar on board one of the ill-fated buses, in his complaint to the police, said he along with his cousin Rahul was travelling from Jammu to Delhi when a speeding bus hit their bus from behind. “Four persons, including my cousin and a woman, sustained serious injuries in the accident. A little later an ambulance reached the spot and took the injured to Civil Hospital where my cousin and an unidentified man were declared brought dead,” said Mr. Kumar, in the FIR.
A case has been registered on charges of causing death by negligence and rash driving against unknown people at Baldev Nagar police station.
