Haryana Roadways bus runs over 6 college girls in Yamunanagar, 2 critical
Condition of two students critical after accident that triggered protest at Pratap Nagar bus stand on Thursday morning.
Six college girls fell off an overcrowded Haryana Roadways bus moments after they boarded it and were run over by its rear wheels at Pratap Nagar bus stand in Yamunanagar district on Thursday morning, police said.
The condition of two of them is stated to be serious, the police said, adding the accident occurred at 8am when the bus going from Paonta Sahib to New Delhi arrived at the bus stand that was packed with students waiting to head to their schools and colleges.
One of the victims, Archita, a third-semester BTech student from GMIT College and a resident of Pratap Nagar tehsil, said that as the bus arrived later than usual, a crowd tried to board it even before it had come to a halt. “Suddenly, instead of stopping, the driver accelerated and six of us lost our balance and fell off. Before we realised what was happening, we came under the rear wheels,” she said. Archita suffered a fracture in the right leg.
The condition of two of the students was stated to be serious. They included Aarti from Kutipur village whose abdomen was crushed by the wheels.
The other injured students were identified as Muskan from Tibbi, Sanjana from Bahadurpur, and Anjali and Amandeep from Pratap Nagar.
Anjali, a final-year BCA student from DAV College, said that few buses plied on the route, forcing students to risk their lives daily. She blamed the driver’s negligence for the accident.
All six students were taken to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Pratap Nagar, which lacked even X-ray and ambulance services, before they were referred to the Yamunanagar Civil Hospital.
Gopal Krishan, the father of one of the students, said parents were forced to rush their daughters to the civil hospital in their own vehicles.
The police said that bus driver Anil Kumar and conductor Kamal had been taken into custody for questioning and medical tests. The driver claimed that the students’ haste led to the accident.
Following the accident, students blocked buses from leaving Pratapnagar bus stand.
Station house officer Nar Singh and sub-Inspector Kanwarpal tried to pacify them, but the protest continued for more than two hours. Students and parents alleged that repeated pleas to increase the number of buses on the route had been ignored. They said nearly 300 students gather at the bus stand every morning, but the number of buses is inadequate. Some rural routes, including Chhikan and Khillonwala, lack regular bus services, they said.
Private cabs charge around ₹2,000 a month, while travel in government buses is free for girls. Apart from DAV Girls College, no other college in the area provides its own bus service, forcing most students to rely on public transport.
