Truck hits school van in Bhojpur, 12 injured

Ara: At least 12 people, including eight children of a private school, were injured in a collision between a school van, a truck and an autorickshaw in Bhojpur district on Wednesday morning.

The accident took place near Kulhariya village on NH-922 under the Koilwar police station area.The school van and the autorickshaw were badly damaged in the collision. According to police, all the injured were rushed to the Koilwar community health centre (CHC) with the help of local residents. Anxious parents soon gathered at the spot, frantically inquiring about the wellbeing of their children.The injured children, studying from UKG to Class 4, were identified as Yashraj (7) and his brother Yuvraj (9), Harshita (10), Pihu Kumari (6), Abhishek (5), Nirmal Kumar (5), Pushkar (6) and Toufique Ahmed (9).

Apart from the children, the school van driver, Suman Kumar (34), and the autorickshaw driver, Mustafa Alam alias Guddu (30), were also injured. Two teachers — Hema Kumari and Priyanka Kumari — who were accompanying the children in the van, sustained minor injuries.Describing the incident from his hospital bed at the Koilwar CHC, the autorickshaw driver, Mustafa Alam, said his vehicle was behind the school van when a speeding container truck suddenly hit the van from the front.

“The impact was so severe that the school van was flung onto the road divider, while my autorickshaw was thrown to the other side of the road. We narrowly escaped death,” he said.He added that his son, Toufique Ahmed, and a young girl travelling in the autorickshaw were injured. “I tried to save my son by holding him in my lap, while the girl was seriously injured and rushed to hospital by her parents,” he said.Visibly shaken, teachers Hema Kumari and Priyanka Kumari were seen assisting health personnel in attending to the injured children. “The truck rammed into our van with great force, leaving us stunned,” Hema said.