Warangal: As many as 17 students were injured, eight of them severely, when a speeding tanker hit their school bus from behind just 100 metres away from the Wardhannapet police station on Tuesday. The injured students were shifted to the Waradhannpet Area Hospital and those severely injured rushed to the MGM hospital. None of the students was critically injured.
Those sitting at the back of the bus were mostly affected because of the impact from the collision. One student, S. Krishna, studying in class eight, sustained a fracture on his leg. Most of the students sustained injuries on their knees and head. Doctors at MGM hospital said most of them are in shock due to the accident.
According to the police, the driver of the tanker was drunk and that caused the accident. The school bus was taking around 40 students to Sri Aurobindo High School in Wardhannapet on Warangal–Khammam highway. There was a culvert near the police station. Being experienced, the school bus driver slowed down. But the speeding tanker driver failed to stop the vehicle and hit the bus from behind. The impact threw the students out of their seats leaving them crying in pain and shouting for help.
The police immediately swung into action and shifted the injured students to nearby hospitals. The truck driver was taken into custody by the police.
Most of the students were residents of DC Thanda in Wardhannpet mandal. District collector Prashant J. Patil and Wardhannapet former MLA Aroori Ramesh visited the students at the MGM hospital and took stock of the situation.
Caretaker deputy chief minister and education minister Kadiyam Srihari has asked the district collector to ensure that the students received proper medical attention.
