Dera Bassi, December 21: Ten persons, including five schoolchildren, sustained injuries in road accidents in Dera Bassi here today. Poor visibility due to dense fog was stated to be the cause of the accidents.
In the first incident, five schoolchildren, aged between 7 to 12, were injured after the school bus they were travelling in was hit by a Haryana Roadways bus on the Chandigarh-Ambala stretch near the Jawaharpur village intersection at Dera Bassi. The bus driver was also hurt, said sources.
The accident took place around 7.10 am when a bus of Lord Mahavir Jain Public School, Dera Bassi, was on its way to the school, carrying over 30 children. As the school bus reached the main highway near the Jawaharpur village intersection, a speeding Haryana Roadways bus coming from the Chandigarh side hit it.
Those injured were Vineet Saini (8), Rahul Saini (12), Rohit Saini (12), Rhythm Saini (7), Simranjit Singh (12) and 42-year-old school bus driver Mangat Singh.
The injured were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Dera Bassi. Three of the seriously injured children — Rohit, Vineet and Simranjit Singh — were referred to Chandigarh where their condition was stated to be stable.
The school bus conductor, Major Singh, and Rekha, a woman attendant, escaped with minor injuries.
Geeta Nandra, principal of the school, rushed to the GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh, to enquire about the well-being of the injured schoolchildren. She said of the three students who were referred to the GMCH, one had a fracture on his arm and another on his nose.
In another incident, four members of a Mohali family were hurt when an Audi car they were travelling in collided with a school bus near the Jawaharpur intersection, Dera Bassi. The police said the incident occurred early in the morning when Harimohan Sharma, a resident of Mohali, along with his family members, was heading towards Ghaziabad. When they reached near the Jawaharpur village intersection, a private school bus collided with the car and then hit a bike.
Those injured are Harimohan Sharma, his wife Pratiba, daughter Muskan and their relative Harjit Kaur. The injured were admitted to Indus International Hospital, Dera Bassi. Both accidents resulted in an hour-long traffic jam on the Chandigarh-Ambala stretch.
A case has been registered against both drivers of the school buses at the Dera Bassi police station. The police said Gurdev Singh of Dappar, who was waiting for the traffic to clear on the highway on his motorbike, had witnessed the entire incident and on the basis of his statement, an FIR was registered against the unidentified driver.
