Nepal

At least 16 people died and 36 others, including the bus driver, were injured in the accident in Jitpur, Simra Sub-metropolitan City on Thursday.

Police said that only a few passengers escaped with minor injuries, with many survivors in serious condition still getting medical care in hospitals. 

Fifteen-year-old Biroj Pakhrin was one of the passengers travelling on the bus that fateful morning.

Following Teeka rituals at their ancestral home in Makwanpurgadhi, Bara the previous day, Biroj and his father, Lalit Pakhrin, 45, reached the Hetauda Bus Park at 5am to return to their house in Amlekhganj. 

“Due to Dasain vacation, only a few vehicles were plying the streets,” Biroj said. “Most vehicles were full beyond capacity, so we waited 3-4 hours at the bus park.”

After a long wait, the bus (BA 06-001 B 0110) from Narayangadh en route to Birgunj arrived at the bus park. The father and son boarded the bus. The bus was picking up passengers along the way at regular intervals. Then it stopped near the Churiamai Temple where four passengers got on the vehicle. 

Before those passengers could settle, Biroj said, he heard someone from the front of the bus shout at the top of his lungs: brake failed. 

What followed was a disaster. The impact of the crash was so severe that the entire top half of the bus was ripped off even before the passengers could sense what had happened - and it was over in the blink of an eye. 

Biroj, who suffered head and knee injuries in the accident, recalled, “As soon I heard that ‘the brakes failed', the bus started veering left and right at speed. I found myself on the river bank when I regained my senses.” 

Unbeknownst that the bus had overturned, he looked out for his father in shock. “I frantically searched for him in the crowd. I noticed my father’s hand jotting out. After shifting four people, I managed to drag him out. The other passengers around him were motionless,” he said.

The police arrived at the accident scene after they got out of the mangled bus. Biroj said that the police took the injured, including his father, to Hetauda hospital.

According to the hospital, considering the severity of the injury Biroj’s father was transferred by ambulance to Bharatpur. Biroj said that his relatives had also come in contact with him.

Similarly, Aryan Bhomjan, an 18-year-old from Bara, also says that he was scared when he suddenly realised that the bus was moving at high speed. Then, he heard the sound of the bus brushing the bush and hitting the wall. 

Bhomjan, travelling on the bus in the back seat, said from his hospital bed that he heard a scream before losing consciousness. He is currently receiving treatment at Chure Hill Hospital in Hetauda. 

A preliminary investigation suggested a brake failure led to the accident near bridge number 3 at Jitpur, Simara-22, around 10 am, according to Inspector Munendra Thapa of Makwanpur Traffic Police Office.

Inspector Thapa said that during interrogation, bus driver Dipta Narayan Dhakal said the accident occurred when the brakes gave way moments after driving further down the Churiamai temple. 

His efforts to keep the bus on the road while avoiding other vehicles, including a TATA Sumo, an auto-rickshaw and a motorcycle, proved futile. 

It was raining when the bus began its journey from Narayangadh with Dhakal behind the wheel and carried on its journey towards Birgunj, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way.

Just as it passed the Churiamai temple, the bus started moving erratically. The driver screamed: “The brakes have failed.” 

The 35-year-old tried as best as possible to keep the vehicle on the road when he realised he had lost the brakes.

However, when all his efforts until the last moments went in vain, with the bus going off its course, Dhakal said, he jumped off the vehicle as it was about to hit the safety wall near the bridge.

The bus veered off the road and hit the wall. 

So far, 12 people have died in Hetauda Hospital, two in Chure Hill Hospital, two in Makwanpur Cooperative Hospital, and one in Chitwan, according to Superintendent Bamdev Gautam of the District Police Office, Makwanpur.