Sambhal: A double-decker sleeper bus travelling from Delhi's Kashmere Gate to Azamgarh overturned on the Ganga Expressway near Karimpur village, in the Bahjoi police station area of Sambhal district, at about 2:30 am on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, reports said. The bus, bearing registration number BR 02 PC 6363, was carrying about 120 passengers, most of them migrant workers returning to their homes in Azamgarh district to celebrate Diwali.

Source: Azmi India News

According to passengers, the bus had stopped at a roadside hotel for food and had only recently resumed its journey when the driver allegedly dozed off, lost control of the vehicle, and the bus overturned on the road. The claim about the driver falling asleep is the passengers' account as reported by both outlets; police have not announced a concluded cause.

Source: TezzBuzz (Dainik Jagran report)

Eight seriously injured taken to district hospital

Most passengers suffered minor injuries in the crash, while eight were seriously injured and were taken by UPEIDA ambulance to the district joint hospital, the reports said. The seriously injured were named as Guddu Pal (24), Pappu (22), Neeraj (25), Balwant (29), Suraj Prakash (31), Suraj (34), Vijendra Gaur (50) and Avneesh (30), all residents of different villages in Azamgarh district. The Hindi report said eight people reached the hospital for treatment and four of them later left; injured passenger Guddu Pal, who works in welding in Delhi, said about 110 to 150 people were travelling on the bus, and that fellow passenger Pappu works in tile-laying — both were heading home for Diwali.

Source: Azmi India News

An evening news roundup from Sambhal likewise reported that the double-decker bus overturned on the Ganga Expressway in the Bahjoi area, that the driver was suspected to have fallen asleep, that more than 100 passengers were on board, and that eight to ten injured passengers were taken to the district hospital.

Source: Shekhar News

Bus righted with a hydra crane, police collecting details

Bahjoi police station in-charge Rajiv Kumar Malik said a police team reached the spot as soon as information about the accident was received. The overturned bus was righted with the help of a hydra machine, the injured were sent to hospital by ambulance, and police are collecting information about the accident, he said, as reported by the Hindi outlet. Passengers helped each other climb out of the overturned bus in the chaos that followed the crash, the reports said.

Source: Azmi India News

No deaths were reported in any of the accounts. The accident is the second overturn of an overcrowded long-distance sleeper bus on this expressway stretch in under two weeks — on October 28, a Patiala-to-Darbhanga bus overturned near Pawasa in the same district, injuring more than 20 people — underlining the risks of overnight festival-season runs carrying far more passengers than a bus is designed for.

Source: TezzBuzz (Dainik Jagran report)