7 injured as bus rams tempo on expressway

PUNE: Seven people were injured, three of them seriously, when a Telangana state transport bus rammed a tempo parked along the Pune-Mumbai expressway at Malavali, near Lonavla, around 5 am on Monday.
The seriously injured - bus driver Bala Shiva Reddy (35), conductor Veer Reddy (40), both from Telangana, and a cleaner of the tempo - were admitted to the Lokmanya hospital in Nigdi.
Four bus passengers who received minor injuries were given first aid in a hospital at Lonavla and discharged, the police said.
The bus, ferrying around 25 passengers, had left the Tandul depot at Mamdabad in Mehboobnagar, Telangana, for Mumbai via Pune around noon on Sunday.
Inspector Pradeep Kale of the Lonavla rural police station told TOI over the phone that the tempo driver stopped the vehicle on lane number one following a tyre burst. "The driver and the cleaner got down from the tempo to check the tyres without bothering to park the tempo off the expressway. The driver of the bus coming from behind lost control over the vehicle and rammed the tempo," he said.
Such was the impact of the crash that front portion of the bus was completely damaged, Kale said, adding taht the bus passengers were sent to Mumbai in another bus.
"Preliminary investigations have revealed that there was negligence on the part of the tempo driver and we have registered a case against him under appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code and Motor Vehicles Act," Kale added.
When contacted, medical officer Jaywant Shrikhande of the Lokmanya hospital, said, "The bus conductor has received injuries on his head and is in the Intensive Care Unit. His condition is criticial. He will be kept under observation for 48 hours. The driver has received fractures on his leg."