A speeding truck crushed 18 labourers to death who were sleeping in front of a parked bus in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday night.
The incident took place in the state’s Barabanki district, located about 28 km from Lucknow, UP’s capital. The tragedy happened during the workers’ return journey from Haryana and Punjab to Bihar, their native state. Their bus suddenly broke down on the national highway due to which some of the passengers of the bus chose to spend the night sleeping near the vehicle.
After the labourers had dozed off, a speeding truck hit the parked bus from behind. The impact pushed the bus forward, bringing all the 18 workers under the tyres and crushing them instantly.
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According to a senior police official, Satya Narayan Sabat, the wounded labourers were shifted to a hospital close to the accident site. Bodies stuck under the bus are being recovered as part of the rescue operation, the officer said.
Expressing his grief and disappointment over the deaths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter. “The road accident news from UP’s Barabanki is very saddening. My sympathies are with the grieving families. I just spoke to CM Yogi ji. Best medical care is being given to the injured workers,” his tweet read when roughly translated from Hindi.
Reminiscing the tragedy of last night, one of the survivors, Bharat said, “We were around 130 people who left from a bus stop near Haryana’s Ambala for Bihar… At around 8 pm, the bus broke down and the driver informed us that the repair work will take time. Many of us came out of the bus. A few were sleeping on the road, a few were eating or resting.”
A truck hit the parked bus at about 11 pm, a few hours after the workers went to sleep, leading to the bloodshed scene, he said.
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Mr Narayan said the district administration and the police have commenced an investigation into the case, “and is ensuring that the injured receive the best medical treatment that’s available.”
This is the second-worst case of trucks crushing labourers after the migrant deaths occurred due to the lockdown imposed amid the first wave of coronavirus.
