8 school kids hurt in bus-auto collision

Our Correspondent

Tanda Urmur (Hoshiarpur), December 2

Eight schoolchildren were injured in a road accident on the Tanda-Sri Hargobindpur road this morning. Both vehicles involved in the accident -- an auto rickshaw and a school bus -- were taking children to school. Most of the injured students are below the age of 10. Diminished visibility due to fog caused the collision.

The accident occurred at 8 am near a furniture showroom at Ahiyapur. A bus of Silver Oak School was trying to overtake a tractor-trailer when it collided with an autorickshaw coming from the opposite direction carrying young children to the GRD School. All children were of 10 years of age or less.

The autorickshaw was badly smashed and children aboard were severely injured. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital in Tanda.

They are Luvjot Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Gurkirat, Sehajpal Kaur, Sehajpal Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Lakhvir Singh, Amrit Kaur and auto driver Harbans Lal. Five of them were referred to the Jalandhar Civil Hospital. Out of them, Luvjot is said to be in a critical condition.

The Tanda police have booked bus driver Manohar Lal on the statement of the autorickshaw driver, charging him of reckless driving.