Ghaziabad: 2 killed, 4 injured as bus mows down 6 on NH-9

Ghaziabad: A three-year-old girl and a 32-year-old woman were killed when an electric-bus, operated by Uttar Pradesh roadways, mowed down six persons near Masuri underpass on National Highway – 9 on Wednesday afternoon. The officials said that the two died on the spot, while four others were rushed to a hospital in Pilkhuwa.

The police identified the deceased as Afiya, 3, a resident of Dhaulana, and Reshma, 36, a resident of Zafar Colony, Nasuri. The injured were identified as Ayesha, 13, Mahinoor, 4, Mohammad Arif, 38, and Mustaqeem, 35.

“The two deceased died on the spot, while four injured were rushed to a hospital in Pilkhuwa. Their condition is stable. The electric bus is operated by UP roadways. It was stationary near the Masuri underpass area. Suddenly, the bus started to move and crushed six people besides several bikes on the highway,” said Siddharth Gautam, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Masuri/Muradnagar circle.

Police said that Sunil Kumar, the driver of the bus, fled soon after the incident.

“We will soon take help from roadways officials to trace the driver. There were no passengers on the bus when it suddenly started moving. It was headed to Dhaulana. We are trying to find if it was some fault on the part of the driver or there was some technical snag which led the stationary bus to move. We will register an FIR (first information report) as soon as we get complaints from victim families,” the ACP added.

The officials said that there were no CCTV cameras near the incident site, while they are taking help of roadways to get footage of CCTVs installed inside the bus.

HT tried to contact Kesri Nandan Chaudhary, the regional manager of UP state road transport corporation. However, his mobile phone was switched off.

Low-floor AC electric buses are operated as part of the city bus project in Ghaziabad, and the city has 50 such buses operating on six different routes.