Experts from New Delhi are investigating the remains of the gutted Volvo bus.
Remains of the charred bus which caught fire near Haveri on Thursday
Hubli: A four-member team of the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) centre in New Delhi has arrived in Haveri to investigate Thursday’s Volvo bus mishap in Savanur taluk, which left seven dead and 41 injured as the vehicle went up in flames within minutes of hitting a cement divider.
The team headed by Sitikant Phady inspected the spot of the accident and the mangled remains of the bus. The NATRiP experts had only a couple of weeks ago investigated the Mahbubnagar bus tragedy which was chillingly similar and claimed 48 lives.
The team, dispatched by the Union ministry of road transport and highway, will submit its report to the Union goÂverÂnment in a couple of wÂeeks. “The prÂobe is coÂmpÂlicated as the bus cÂaÂught fiÂre aÂfter bÂeing dÂragged for arÂoÂund 1Â50 meÂters after ramming into tÂhe ceÂment railing.
We will recÂonstrÂuct the entire incident before coming to a conclusion. A detailed report will be submitted to the Centre within the next 15 days,” Phady said.
Meanwhile, the driver at the wheel, Mujahid, who had been absconding after the mishap, surrendered befÂore the Haveri police on Friday. While one of the dead passengers has been identified as Hemanth Kumar of Surat, a DNA test will be conducted on the others to establish their identity.
All the five critically injured passengers, who were admitted to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) have now been taken to various hospitals in Bengaluru for further treatment.
Next: Driver's body to arrive on monday
Driver's body to arrive on monday
Inspector-General of Police (North Range), Belgaum, Bhaskar Rao, who visited the spot, said that the Haveri DySP will also conduct a detail investigation into the incident.
Bengaluru: Before he left home, Nawaz Pasha told his family he wouldn’t be home this Muharram, promising he’d be back on Saturday. Pasha, who was a driver on the ill-fated Haveri bus, was burnt alive in the fire that consumed it.
Pasha’s family woke up to the tragic news when his brother Firoz, arrived on their doorstep bearing news that Pasha had met with a tragic accident.
The Haveri police said Pasha may be alive as his body had not yet been identified, instilling a glimmer of hope for his family. Not long after, however, Pasha’s cousin Riyaz, who went to Haveri when news of the tragedy broke, called home to say he had identified Pasha’s charred body. Pasha’s wife, Mousina, who was in a Dargah in Tamil Nadu, did not hear about her husband’s death till late on Thursday evening. She understood the situation only when she returned home to find visitors gathered outside.
Although Pasha’s family expected the body to arrive by Friday, they have been forced to contend with a delay. “Our relatives, who went to Haveri to identify the body are still there. The police have told them they have several procedures to finish and that we get will the body only by Monday evening,” the driver’s nephew Imran Pasha said.
NEXT: We follow global safety standards: Volvo
We follow global safety standards: Volvo
Bengaluru: Akash Passey, senior vice president, Volvo, strongly denied allegations that Volvo buses have technical glitches that make them vulnerable to fire mishaps.
“Our buses follow global safety rules and we have released over 5,000 buses into the Indian market which have been designed after years of R&D,” he stated. Passey said a team of experts will be in India soon to look into both fire mishaps.
“The incidents have shocked us. Our experts will assist the government in its investigation and also conduct an independent inquiry,” he said, refuting the allegation that emergency exits in the Volvo buses are placed too high.
‘Those exits have only been designed for emergencies. 80 per cent of the bus can be broken open easily. We have four emergency exits although the law only requires us to have two,” Passey said, and added, “It is high time different ageÂncies collaborated towards making our system sensitive to passenger safety.”
( Source : dc )
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