Aligarh Highway Bus Blaze: 60 Lives Narrowly Saved — Negligence or Tragic Accident?

Aligarh: On Tuesday midnight, a scene came to light on the Delhi-Kanpur highway, which took the breath away from 60 passengers. When a private bus going from Bilhaur to Panipat reached near Akarabad toll in Aligarh, it suddenly caught fire. The bus burned fiercely and in no time the passengers were seen jumping out of the bus leaving their luggage to save their lives.

"Smoke rose and life got entangled" - passengers saw death closely like this

The passengers sitting in the bus told that as soon as the bus reached the bypass, suddenly sparks came out of the engine and then a fire broke out with a loud explosion. The driver showed promptness and stopped the bus and called all the passengers to get out. In the blink of an eye, the flames of fire engulfed the bus. According to the passengers, if there was a delay of even two minutes, then something bad was certain.

The bus was running on wires, the driver was pulling the accelerator with his hand

The most shocking thing about this accident was that the driver was driving the bus with a hand-pulled accelerator wire after a technical fault. The bus had already developed a fault a few kilometres before the accident, but instead of stopping it, the driver continued to drive it by connecting the wire. This wiring became the reason for the accident, which caused a short circuit in the bus and the fire spread due to the spark.

The driver absconded, permit and maintenance under question

After the incident, neither the driver nor the conductor was found. The passengers recovering from the accident are angry. Many passengers alleged that the bus was in a very bad condition, and it had neither safety equipment nor any emergency measures. It is also not clear yet whether the permit of the bus was valid or not. Questions are being raised that how was this bus running on the roads without fitness?

Dreams burnt, only smoke left in hand

The valuables of the passengers  wedding clothes, important documents, cash and children's books  everything was burnt. A woman passenger wept and said, "Life was saved, but whatever we had taken with us, all was turned to ashes." Two fire engines controlled the fire after an hour of effort, but by then most of the goods had been burnt.

Passengers got new vehicles, but accountability is still incomplete

The police sent the passengers to their destination in other vehicles, but no concrete action has been taken against the bus operator and driver so far. This accident is a warning - not just buses, but systems are also burning.