Nayagarh picnic bus tragedy: Drunk driving caused accident, says transport official

Serious lapses have surfaced in an accident involving a picnic bus and a truck in Nayagarh's Daspalla area that claimed the lives of three students and left 11 others critically injured. 

Pradeep Mohanty, Joint Commissioner of Odisha Transport Department, on Saturday while speaking to OTV attributed the mishap to drunk driving.

As per reports, the bus in which the children were traveling in collided with a truck head-on near Buguda on the Shalabhanga jungle road under Daspalla police limits in the district on Friday night.

According to Mohanty, the truck was driven by another person other than the driver and he was in an inebriated condition.

“Further investigation into the incident is currently underway. Stern action will be taken against the erring persons after the completion of the investigation,” said Mohanty.

“Whenever students of an educational institution go on a picnic, the authorities should not start their journey at night. They should start their travel in the morning and return by evening,” he added.

Now question mark has been raised why another person other than the driver was driving the truck? Did the other person know how to drive properly? Moreover, how the other person was allowed to drive the heavy vehicle in a drunken state?

Notably, the mishap occurred on Friday night when more than 50 students from a private educational institution at Daspalla were on their way to Harishankar and Nrusinghanath in Bolangir for a picnic.

As per reports, the picnic bus collided with a truck near Sahalabhanga jungle leaving three children dead.