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When 22-year-old Vinita decided to take a bus from Udaipur instead of boarding a train to reach Jaipur, little did she know that her change in plans to reach the destination early would cost her life.
Vinita was one of the three persons who succumbed to critical burn injuries in the hospital on Wednesday.
She was travelling in a bus from Udaipur to Jaipur that was gutted in a fire that broke out after a collision between a truck and an LPG tanker on Jaipur-Ajmer national highway on December 20.
She was standing near the gate of the bus, waiting it to stop at 200-feet bypass in Jaipur in a couple of minutes but barely a few meters ahead of the stop, a gush of fire surrounded her, leaving her critically burnt.
Five days after battling for life at SMS hospital, she died in the early hours of Wednesday.
With three more deaths, the death toll in the incident on Wednesday rose to 18 while 15 are undergoing treatment.
"Vinita had gone to Udaipur to take an exam and was to board a train on Friday morning but she decided board a sleeper bus instead on Thursday night, thinking that she would reach early. I was expecting a call from her that she had reached Jaipur. I indeed got a call, but it was about the accident," her father Ramchandra said.
He said that Vinita was standing near the gate of the bus when the explosion occurred. The bus was behind the tanker.
"When the fire broke out, she instantly called me. I was shocked to hear and was numb for a moment. The call got disconnected and after some time, we got to know that she was badly injured," he said.
He said that after the fire, Vinita jumped out of the bus and ran for some distance but by that time, she had received critical burn injuries.
The 22-year-old woman suffered 70 per cent burns and was admitted to ICU.
Ramchandra, who is from Pratapgarh, said that Vinita was preparing for competitive exams in Jaipur and staying there with her younger sister.
After the postmortem, the family members left for Pratapgarh with the body.
SMS hospital superintendent Sushil Bhati said that three persons died on Wednesday.
"With three more deaths, a total of 18 persons have died so far," he said.
Bhati said that the condition of two of the injured is still critical.
An LPG tanker collided with a truck on December 20, sparking a massive fireball that turned a stretch of the Jaipur-Ajmer highway into an inferno.
Eleven persons had died on the day of the incident.