17 persons were injured in the accident on Tuesday
The family members of Nukala Jaganmohan Rao, the tour organiser who died in the bus accident, grieve at his house near Machilipatnam in Krishna district on Tuesday. His wife, Nukala Krishna Kumari, also died in the mishap. (Photo: DC )
VIJAYAWADA: Eight persons, from six different families from Chilakalapudi near Machilipatnam, died in a road mishap at Solapur in Maharashtra. As many as seventeen persons were injured in the accident that took place at 3.30 am on Tuesday.
A 51-member team from Chilakalapudi had left for an eight-day pilgrimage to Shirdi on September 29 in a private bus with registration number AP21X0408. They had Sai darshan at Shirdi on October 4 and later, headed to Pandaripur on Monday and then left by midnight. The accident occurred on State Highway 141, Kabidgaon near Solapur. The bus hit a divider and jumped off a culvert.
The deceased have been identified as Chalamalasetty Ranganatha Rao, 60, Jonnalagadda Venkataravamma, 62, Golla Lakshmi, 45, Golla Reshma, 19, Gedela Venkateswaramma, 70, Beeram Seshamani, 72, Nukala Jaganmohan Rao, 65 and Nukala Krishna Kumari, 55. Nukala Jaganmohan Rao, was the tour operator.
T. Satyanarayana, circle inspector of Chilakalapudi police station, said, “The injured persons told us that Maganti Srinivasa Rao, the driver, was taking a break at the time of the accident and the bus was being driven by Ramesh, the cleaner.”
SI of Solapur police, Shinde, said, “A case will be registered against the driver-cum-owner of the bus. The cleaner is being detained too.”
The Maharashtra police arranged for five ambulances to take the bodies to AP. The injured persons were airlifted to Vijayawada by a special flight arranged by the state government.
Chief Minister Nara Chandra Babu Naidu expressed shock and ordered the officials to take steps to rescue all the injured.
Twenty-nine survivors of the Solapur accident from Chilakalapudi village, reached Gannavaram airport on Tuesday morning. Emotional scenes were witnessed at the airport as they were reunited with their families.
R. Venkateswarlu, one of the survivors of the horrific accident, said that he was awakened by a loud sound. He searched for his son Likhit and rescued him by breaking the glass window of the bus. He got out of the bus and helped locals in rescuing other passengers in the rear seats and those trapped in the slushy water.
Another survivor, Sivaramakrishna said it was a second birth for him and his family members. He said that he still cannot believe he is safe. Nageswara Rao from Chilakalapudi reached the airport to receive his sister-in-law Vijayakumari, but his brother-in-law Ranganatha Rao died in the accident.
The survivors said that a local sub-inspector of Telugu origin helped them and accompanied them to Solapur airport. Of the 51 people who went on the pilgrimage, 29 people reached Gannavaram airport safely, six were hospitalised with major injuries, eight persons died while the others accompanied the injured at Solapur.
Minister for irrigation Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, backward classes welfare minister Kollu Ravindra, said that the Chief Minister arranged for a special flight to bring the survivors to their native place. The survivors were taken from Gannavaram airport to Chilakalapudi in a Volvo bus. Ambika, a 15- year-old girl, traumatised by the accident, listened patiently as her family members narrated the harrowing experience.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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