Two persons were killed when an APSRTC bus collided with a private bus at Kasipentla village in Chandragiri mandal of Chittoor district early on Wednesday.
The incident happened near the Heritage Foods plant on the Puthalapattu Naidupet highway, 28 km from here. The APSRTC Amaravati bus from Vijayawada to Kuppam collided with the private bus proceeding from Sabarimala towards Nalgonda in Telangana. The bus, hired by Ayyappa devotees, had started at Dindi in Nalgonda district on January 4 and was on its return journey when the accident occurred.
The Chandragiri police, along with rescue teams, rushed to the spot and extricated the bodies from the bus. Gas cutters and welding equipment were used to separate the vehicles that got entangled under the impact of the collision. The deceased were identified as APSRTC bus driver Ramesh, belonging to Penamalur, and coach attendant Prasad, hailing from Vuyyuru, both in Krishna district.
As ambulances were found to be insufficient to shift the injured to the SVRR government general hospital in Tirupati, those with minor injuries were transported in passing trucks. The private bus driver was rushed into the ICU for an emergency surgery.
Traffic hit
Traffic came to a standstill for up to a kilometre on either side of the spot on the busy highway, which was cleared with great difficulty.
Collector visits patients
Meanwhile, Dstrict Collector Bharat N. Gupta called on the 29 injured being treated at the SVRR hospital and instructed the medical team to provide emergency services to the victims till their recovery. Accompanied by Superintendent of Police Gajarao Bhupal, he visited the hospital’s orthopaedic ward.
The injured passengers from both the buses include U. Krishnakanth,42, Thambaiah, 55, Nimmalal, 45, A. Krishna, 38, S. Rajesh, 35, P. Rambabu, 32, P.T. Kumar, 53, K. Parvathalu, 30 U. Srinivasulu, 42, M. Paripoornachari, 39, S. Madhu, 29, B. Bathi Reddy, 43, C. Ramana, 36, A. Pavan, 35, Y. Srinivasulu, 30, Usha Kiran, 24, Balaram Krishna, 13, Ratna Rishi, 7, Ch. P. Sai Kumar, 21, P. Saidulu, 33, and Saidulu, 35.
