38 injured as lorry hits RTC bus in Kakinada

Kakinada: Thirty-eight passengers travelling in an APSRTC bus were injured when it collided with a coal-laden lorry near Achampet junction in Kakinada rural mandal on Friday. The bus on its way from Razole to Visakhapatnam was hit by the lorry coming from Kakinada deep water port at Achampet crossroads shortly after midnight and overturned.

At the time of the accident, there were 38 persons on the bus, including four bus crew. While most of the passengers suffered minor injuries, three sustained serious injuries. All of them were taken to the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Kakinada where surgery was performed on three of the victims.

Timmapuram sub-inspector J Vijay Babu said that coal lorry hit the bus from the rear while the bus was about to take a left turn, resulting it to overturn. The driver of the lorry fled from the spot immediately after the mishap.

District collector D Muralidhar visited Government General Hospital and enquired about the cause of accident and the medical aid given to the injured. Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu, who also visited the injured persons at the hospital, said that better medical care would be provided to the victims.

He said surgery was performed on the three victims and directed the superintendent of GGH to provide better medical care to the injured. Timmapuram police registered a case and were searching for the lorry driver.