Murshidabad bus accident: Driver was busy talking on mobile, death toll rises to 36

At least 36 persons, including nine women and two kids died after a bus fell into a canal in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The accident happened early on Monday morning as a state transport corporation bus travelling from Karimpur in Nadia to Malda district broke the railing of Balighat bridge at Daulatabad area in Murshidabad district and fell into the canal.

The bus was carrying 56 passengers and while some managed to swim across the canal, most of them were trapped inside the drowned bus. District TMC youth leader Soumik Hossain said, “So far 36 bodies have been recovered and another nine were injured. That leaves another 11 persons who are missing.”

Area locals had started agitation alleging delay in rescue operations and in the process damaged and burnt a police vehicle as well as a rescue van. Later police had to resort to mild lathicharge and firing of tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.

Some of the passengers who managed to escape with minor injuries said that the driver was busy talking on his mobile phone while the bus was travelling at a high speed and had only one of his hands on the steering when the accident happened.

At the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, state transport minister Suvendu Adhikary along with the state transport secretary and ADG (traffic) flew to the spot in a helicopter.

After about eight hours of the incident, four giant cranes managed to fish the bus out of the water and get the bodies out of the bus. “The bus fell in deep water and the cranes were not big enough thus there was a delay in rescue operations but later giant size hydraulic cranes were pressed in as well as divers were engaged. While bodies have been taken for a post mortem, floodlights have been installed at the site for National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel to continue search operations late into the night.

Mamata has declared an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for families of the deceased and a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those with minor injury.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury too reached the spot. “The state government is putting up ‘Safe drive save life’ campaign but ground reality is something else. Vehicles have to pay toll for crossing the bridge and look at the maintenance of the bridge which gave away after the collision. There has to be a serious investigation in to the matter,” he said talking to reporters.