Vijayawada: As many as 35 passengers were injured, seven of them grievously, when a private bus overturned and fell into a ditch at Nawabpet in Panuganchiprolu mandal of Krishna district in the early hours of Monday.
According to police, the bus, belonging to Hyderabad-based Ramana Travels, was on its way to Hyderabad from Yanam, overturned when it was negotiating a turn.
Police described the health condition of 11-year-old Mandapati Chinni from K. Gangavaram, East Godavari district was ‘worrisome’.
All the injured were initially taken to a hospital in Nandigama. Later, 10 of them were shifted to the Vijayawada Government General Hospital.
The bus, carrying 40 passengers, had started from Yanam at 6.30 pm and had reached Nawabpeta on NH-65, at 3 am.
At the time of the crash, all the passengers, along with the reserve driver and cleaner, were fast asleep. The passengers managed to exit the bus after breaking a window.
However, the driver of the bus, identified as Sk. Vali, was trapped by his leg in the mangled mass of steel, between the steering column and the clutch pedal. The rescue workers freed him after 2.5 hours of effort.
