1 dead, 30 injured as two school buses meet with accidents in separate cases

KARWAR: One person died and 30 people, including schoolchildren, were injured, eight of them seriously, in two separate accidents involving school buses carrying students and teachers for excursion, in Uttara Kannada district on Friday.

Kasturamma (60) died while eight people sustained serious injuries and seven others sustained minor injuries when the school bus they were travelling in toppled over near Bugudikoppa on the Sirsi-Haveri section of the National Highway-766. The injured were first treated at the Primary Health Centre at Banavasi and later shifted to a hospital in Sirsi.

The bus belongs to Pariniti Vidya Mandir, Ranebennur, and the students and teachers were headed to Sirsi. Overspeeding is said to be the cause of the accident. The Banavasi police have registered a case.

The bus, belonging to a Ranebennur school, hit a tanker from behind.

In the other incident, 15 people, including teachers and students, were injured when the school bus they were travelling in rammed into a tanker from behind on the Arabail Ghat near Yellapur on National Highway-63. While the occupants sustained minor injuries, the bus driver sustained serious injuries and was shifted to the Yellapur government hospital.

The bus belongs to St Antony’s Public School, Hubballi. Rash driving is said to be the cause of the accident. A case has been registered at the Yellapur police station.