Screams and painful cries, mixed with strong stench of blood, were the scenes everywhere after a recklessly driven bus collided head-on with a truck near Chhote Modd on National Highway-30 in Bastar leaving 22 persons severely injured on Tuesday evening. Panic prevailed as the front façade of two vehicles severely crushed into each, leaving behind a trail of profusely bleeding injured persons including the ill-fated bus passengers. However, fortunately no loss of life was reported in the mishap.

Moreover, as a result of mishap, the vehicular traffic on ever-busy NH-30 remained interrupted for several hours as multiple teams of first responders including police, paramedics, ambulances and tow vehicles were rushed to scene to rescue the injured bus passengers to nearest medical facility and clear the road for traffic. Two females were among 22 injured persons. According to reports received here from the police sources, the mishap took place between 5.30 pm to 6.00 pm, when a Jagdalpur-bound speeding bus (CG-19 AF-3006) of Kanker Roadways transgressed its road lane in an apparent bid of overtaking and collided head-on with a heavy-commercial truck (AP16 TE-3477) coming from opposite direction. The mishap took place near Chhote Modd, ahead of Farasgaon Nagar under Farasgaon police station limits. “The impact of the collision was so powerful that around 22 out of 37 passengers onboard the bus sustained different types of severe injuries. Upon the receipt of mishap news, local police rushed for rapid rescue and relief and immediately shifted the injured passengers to Farasgaon Hospital,” the sources added. Eyewitnesses, including the ill-fated passengers, claimed that the over-speeding of the bus by its driver and his futile attempt to steer the vehicle into the wrong lane led to the mishap. Soon after the mishap, a long queue of vehicles was spotted stuck in both the directions causing severe chock-o-block on the National Highway and local police authorities were struggling hard to restore normalcy for traffic movement, they added.

In the meantime, also affirmed that three bus passengers among 22 injured, were referred to Raipur since they had sustained grievous injuries. In between, the Farasgaon Police in the course of their investigation identified the injured passengers as Narsingh Bahadur (50, Kondagaon), Hiraram Vatti (66, Kanker), Bharat Nishad (30, Gunderdehi, Balod), Rameshwar Sonwani (60, Jagdalpur), Rohit Kumar Chandel (22, Kanker), Santram Dahariya (30, Kanker), Sangeeta Sarkar (42, Jagdalpur), Bhanu Mandavi (17, Kodenar, Jagdalpur), Ajay Kumar Paikra (24, Shankargarh, Ambikapur), Alok Priyadarshi (26, Kongaoan), Chaman Nag alias Pappu (23, Mardapal), Mithun Pandey (19, Kondgaon), Rajesh Kumar Sonkar (34, Mirzapur, UP), Rakesh Yadav (34, Bemetara), Ramesh Yadav (36, Kabirdham), Lakhanpal Poyam (42, Makri, Kanker), Dharmendra Tiwari (42, Bhanpuri, Raipur), Kuber Pal (28, Phutupara, Odisha) and Bhawani Soni (46, Jagdalpur), in addition to injured truck driver V R S Patya (45, Vijaywada, AP) and errant bus driver Satnam Singh (Raipur).