At least 15 persons were injured, 10 of them critically, after a truck hit a bus near Khaman under Tikayatpalli police limits in Sundargarh district in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The bus named Anupama had approximately 30 passengers on board when the mishap occurred. The bus was en route to Rourkela from Bhubaneswar.
Following the accident, all of the injured passengers were rushed to Bonai hospital for treatment. Out of the 15 injured passengers, 10 seriously injured passengers were later shifted to Rourkela hospital for treatment.
“I boarded the bus from Cuttack. I was sleeping when the accident happened at 3 am in the morning. The police came to the spot and brought us to the hospital for treatment,” said an injured passenger.
It is pertinent to mention here that the stretch of National Highway where the accident occurred has a lot of diversions due to road construction.
Some passengers alleged that the truck came from its lane to the lane on which the bus was on and collided with it.
While the exact reason behind the mishap is yet to be ascertained, it is suspected that the truck driver dozed off behind the steering wheel causing the accident.
The police were unavailable to make any comments on the matter.