INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
SINDKHED RAJA (BULDHANA): Ten minutes
That's the time it took for the desperate cries from the Nagpur-Pune bus that turned into an inferno after crashing to fall silent.TOI's
reality check at the spot revealed the horror which the Samruddhi eway witnessed in the wee hours of Saturday
"People inside were trying to break windows
We saw people getting burnt alive...The fire was so intense that we could not do anything.We were in tears
Had vehicles passing by the highway stopped for help, more lives could have been saved," a local resident said.Two of the survivors who
managed to scramble out of the burning bus along with two to three others by breaking a window claimed they tried to help the others, but in
Yogesh Gawai was one of them
"Me and my friend along with a police constable (Shashikant Gajbhiye) smashed a window, kicking and punching it desperately
The bus was already on fire and the flames were spreading fast when we jumped out
As we came out, those still inside were screaming," said Gawai.Gawai said a toddler was among the children trapped inside
"There were two loud explosions
Some people had come to help
Even the police officers had reached the spot but everything was over within 10 minutes," said Gawai, an Aurangabad company employee who had
come to Nagpur for work on June 26.Only a mangled iron frame of the bus remained in place, besides crumpled plastic water bottles, burnt
clothes and foam mats reduced to ashes - signs of the blaze's ferocity
Gawai's colleague and survivor Sainath Pawar said he and some other survivors tried to smash the bus windshield to create an exit for those
"As we tried to break the glass, there was an explosion
We tried again but the flames had spread devastatingly," said Sainath, a resident of Mahur in Beed district
Gawai said one constable, Gajbhiye, who survived with them, could barely stand
"His hand was badly wounded while trying to smash the window," he said
The cop is a native of Mehkar, is now settled in Aurangabad and had gone to Nagpur for training
Gawai and Pawar were among the five survivors who were rushed to the nearby Deulgaon Raja Government Hospital along with the driver Sheikh
Danish, cleaner Sandeep Rathod and constable Gajbhiye.Another passenger, Ayush Ghatge, said it was a miracle that he survived
He said he boarded the bus at Butibori, near Nagpur
Then I broke it and some of us came out," he said
Yavatmal's Nikhil Pathe (23) wasn't lucky enough to dodge death
"My brother was going to Pune to find a job there
But it turned out to be his final journey," said elder brother Harshad.(With agency inputs)
