Had vehicles passing by highway stopped for help...: Maha tragedy survivor

Some of the survivors of the ill-fated bus that caught fire and led to the death of 25 passengers in Maharashtra's Buldhana district on Saturday, said they managed to come out of the burning vehicle by breaking its window.

The private sleeper coach bus, which was travelling from Nagpur to Pune, met with an accident at Pimpalkhuta village near Sindkhedraja on the Samruddhi Expressway as it rammed into a road divider around 1.30 am on Saturday. Of the 33 passengers travelling on the bus, 25 were charred to death, police said.

Eight others, including the bus driver and its cleaner, survived, they said.

After hitting the divider, the bus overturned and fell on its right side with the entry/exit door facing the sky, they said.

"A tyre of the bus burst and the vehicle caught fire immediately. The blaze spread in no time," one of the survivors said.

"The passenger sitting next to me and I managed to escape by breaking the rear window," he said.

The survivor said that after the accident, teams of police and fire brigade reached the site quickly.

Another survivor, Ayush Ghatge, said it was a miracle that he survived the horrific accident.

He said he boarded the bus at Butibori, an industrial suburb of Nagpur.

"I was on the last seat and sleeping when the accident took place. I woke up when a few people fell on me following the accident. I immediately stood up and started looking for a window to come out. I started breaking a window and three of us came out with each other's help," Ghatge said.

Relatives of Avani Pohnekar, who died in the accident, told a TV channel that she was an IT engineer on way to Pune to explore job opportunities.

"She was going to Pune from Wardha. We later found out that Avani was among the 14 passengers who had boarded this bus from Wardha," they said.

A local resident said four to five passengers managed to escape by breaking one window of the bus.

"But not everyone could do it," he said.

The people who could come out of the bus later told us that they sought help from other vehicles on the highway, but nobody stopped, he added.

"Many accidents take place on this highway at Pimpalkhuta. We were called for help and when we went there, we saw the horrible situation...The tyres had fallen apart," the local resident said.

"People inside were trying to break the windows. We saw people getting burnt alive...The fire was so intense that we could not do anything. We were in tears...," he said.

Had the vehicles passing by the highway stopped for help, more lives could have been saved, he added.

Harshad Pathe, elder brother of deceased passenger, 23-year-old Nikhil Pathe from Gondhdi village of Yavatmal, told media that he had dropped his brother at the Vidarbha Travels' boarding point on Friday night.

"My brother was going to Pune to find a job there. But it turned out to be his final journey," he said.