New Delhi: In another tragic road accident in India this year, 11 people lost their lives and 60 others were injured in the head-on collision between two government buses in Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his deep condolences for the deaths. He also announced an ex gratia of Rs 3 lakh to the families of the victims, whereas the severely injured people will receive Rs 1 lakh each and Rs 50,000 to people with minor injuries.

There were nine women among the 11 victims who lost their lives. A bus driver also died on the spot. One bus was heading from Kangeyam to Karaikudi, while the other was operating on the Karaikudi to Dindigul route. The accident occurred around 5 pm.

A preliminary report confirmed that one of the bus drivers abruptly turned the vehicle to avoid hitting a woman across the state highway and rammed the bus into the opposite side.

The fire, rescue, and police teams reached the scene immediately and rescued the injured. The locals of nearby villages also came forward to assist the authorities. A minimum of 20 ambulances took the injured to the hospitals in Karaikudi, Thirupattur, Sivanga, Pudukottai, and Madurai. Whereas 28 injured people went to the private hospital on their own.

This is also the second major bus accident in southern Tamil Nadu within a week. In the previous bus crash, six people were killed when two private buses collided with each other. The investigators found out reckless driving of one driver was the cause of the accident.

Helpline numbers

The authorities opened toll-free numbers in the Sivaganga district to provide information about the bus crash. According to the TOI report, Collector K. Porkodi confirmed that three victims still couldn’t be identified yet.

Apart from the three victims, the others are driver P Sendrayan, S Muthumari, R Kalpana, V Mallika, M Chellam, D Gunalakshmi, K Lavanya, and A Deivanai.

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