Karnataka: Over 20 Killed As Sleeper Bus Collides With Truck In Chitradurga (Photo on X@AJAYDESAI143 )

Chitradurga, Karnataka: Over 20 passengers were burned alive after a private sleeper bus caught fire after being hit by a truck in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district early on Thursday morning. The accident happened on National Highway-48 (NH-48) at around 2.30 am.

The bus, a private sleeper, was traveling from Bengaluru to Shivamogga, covering over 300 kilometers, when it was hit by a truck coming from the other side after it reportedly jumped the divider and crashed into the bus.

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According to Ravikant Gowda, Inspector General of Police, the truck jumped over the divider and hit the bus, and the truck then might have hit the bus’s fuel tank, leading to fuel gushing out and explosion, as per the preliminary investigation. According to the reports, the truck driver’s negligence was the cause of the accident, and he jumped a road-divider, lost control of the vehicle and collided with the oncoming bus on the highway that connects Bengaluru with Pune and Mumbai.

While a few passengers managed to escape, most of the victims were burnt to death. The bus had 32 passengers, which got engulfed in flames due to the impact of the collision. While the driver and cleaner of the bus escaped, the driver of the truck and its cleaner are among the dead.

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