PALAKKAD, Oct 6: Nine people, including five schoolchildren were killed and
40 injured, 12 of them critically, in a terrible bus accident in Kerala’s Vadakkancherry
in Palakkad district in the late hours of Wednesday.
The children belonging to Class 10, 11 and 12 were travelling from their Baselious
School in Mulanthuruthy in Ernakulam district to Ooty, a tourist destination
of Tamil Nadu, on a school excursion trip when the tourist bus they were in
collided with a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus.
The absconding tourist bus driver Jomon was apprehended in Kollam on Thursday
afternoon. The bus belongs to a Kottayam native.
There were 42 students and five teachers and two bus staff on board. The KSRTC
bus, packed with 49 passengers, coming from Kottarakkara, was heading for Coimbatore,
in the same direction. The school bus going at high speed reportedly at 97 kmph,
hit the slowing KSRTC bus from behind while overtaking a car and fell into roadside
swamp, at 11:30 pm.
A surviving student told 'Manorama News' that the bus was running at 80 kmph
from the very beginning and that when pointed out it was too high for night
driving, a bus staff ignored their concern.
