Bhatkal: A young woman from Shirali in Bhatkal taluk is among those who lost their lives in a tragic road accident involving a private bus that was travelling from Bengaluru to Gokarna, a popular tourist destination in Kumta taluk.
The accident occurred in the early hours of Thursday when a container truck rammed into a luxury sleeper bus on National Highway 48 at Javanagondanahalli near Hiriyur taluk in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district. All the deceased bus passengers were travelling from Bengaluru to Gokarna, including 24-year-old Rashmi Mahale from Bhatkal.
According to sources, Rashmi Mahale had been working for the past one year in the accounts department of a software company in Bengaluru. She had left Bengaluru along with two of her friends to visit Gokarna during the Christmas holidays.
Police said that a container truck travelling from Hiriyur towards Bengaluru lost control, crossed the road divider and came onto the wrong carriageway, colliding head-on with the private bus heading from Bengaluru to Gokarna. Police suspect that the container driver may have dozed off, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and cross the divider. Immediately after the collision, the bus caught fire, triggering panic and chaos among the passengers.
In the aftermath of the accident, initial reports suggested that 17, and later nine, people had died. However, after the fire was brought under control and rescue operations were completed, police confirmed that five bodies, including that of a minor girl, were recovered from inside the bus. The container driver also died in the accident, taking the total death toll to six.
An official from the Hiriyur Rural Police Station said that two of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, making immediate identification impossible. As Rashmi Mahale of Shirali in Bhatkal taluk and Navya, a resident of Channarayapatna, were reported missing, police suspect that the unidentified bodies could be theirs. Their identities will be confirmed only after DNA tests.
The other deceased have been identified as Bindu V and her five-year-old daughter Grema, residents of Bengaluru; Manasa from Channarayapatna; and container driver Kuldeep Yadav from Haryana.
Speaking to SahilOnline over the phone, an ambulance driver identified as Ahmed said that a total of 32 people, including the driver, cleaner and a child, were travelling in the bus. Of them, 25 passengers have been admitted to various hospitals, while two persons who sustained minor injuries were discharged after first aid and returned to their hometowns.
He further said that two critically injured passengers were shifted to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru, while others are undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Hiriyur and at Shira Hospital in Tumakuru district.
According to the ambulance driver, all the bodies have been shifted to the mortuary of Chitradurga Government Hospital, where post-mortem examinations will be conducted before handing them over to the families.
It was also learnt that Rashmi Mahale had boarded the bus to Gokarna along with her friends Gagan and Rakshita. When the bus caught fire following the collision, both her friends managed to jump out and save themselves, but Rashmi went missing amid the chaos. Her family members in Shirali said that they have not received any call from her since the accident and that her mobile phone has remained switched off.
Police said that all the passengers had boarded the bus in Bengaluru bound for Gokarna, and Rashmi was planning to travel onward to Bhatkal after reaching Gokarna.
As the two bodies could not be identified immediately, it was initially believed that Rashmi and Navya might have survived and been admitted to some hospital. Their families, deeply distressed, searched for them at various hospitals. While Rashmi’s family in Bhatkal anxiously awaited information, Navya’s parents, Manjappa and his wife, were seen showing their daughter’s photographs to people in an effort to trace her. Based on their continued absence, police later concluded that the two unidentified bodies were those of Rashmi and Navya.
Navya’s parents said that her wedding had been fixed for April 28 and that she had expressed a desire to visit Gokarna before the wedding preparations began, which was why she had undertaken the journey.
A case has been registered at the Hiriyur Rural Police Station in connection with the accident, and further investigation is underway.
Read our earlier report on the same accident:
9 charred to death as private bus catches fire after collision in Chitradurga
Watch video | Tragic bus accident in Chitradurga