Schoolboy killed, 3 hurt as buses collide

Our Correspondent

Kharar, February 12

Samarth Sachdeva, a 10-year-old boy from Kharar, was killed while three others, including his sister, were seriously injured when their school bus collided with a speeding bus on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway near Bhagomajra village, close to Kharar, this morning.

One of the injured children, Arav (9), a resident of Kharar, has been referred to the PGI where his condition is stated to be critical. Six other students, the school bus driver and a woman attendant, however, escaped with minor bruises.

The accident took place around 7.10 am when a bus from St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, Chandigarh, which was on its way to pick up students from JBP Township near here, collided head-on with a speeding Punjab Roadways bus (PB 10 BM 9821), coming from the Ludhiana side.

Dharminder Sharma, driver of the school bus (PB 65 AA 1499), said he had gone to pick up students from the Kharar area along with a woman attendant, Reena Rani. There were 10 students in the bus when it met with the accident.

While Samarth died on the spot, another student, Arav, and two others — deceased’s sister Khwaish Sachdeva (13) and Ayushi Rana (9) — sustained injuries. The injured were rushed to the Kharar Civil Hospital from where Arav was referred to the PGI.

The Punjab Roadways bus driver, Balbir Singh, fled the spot. The police have registered a case under Sections 279, 304-A, 337 and 338 of the IPC against Balbir.

A pall of gloom descended on Samarth’s house as soon as the news of his death reached. Ram Pal Sachdeva, father of the deceased, who resides in Green Enclave near the grain market in Kharar, said Samarth, a Class IV student at St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, Chandigarh, along with his sister Khwaish Sachdeva (13), a student of Class VII in the same school, boarded the school bus as usual this morning. “We didn’t know that our son was leaving home forever,” the wailing parents of the deceased said. 

Mishap took place at 7.10 am

The accident took place around 7.10 am when a bus from St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, Chandigarh, which was on its way to pick up students from JBP Township near Kharar, collided head-on with a speeding Punjab Roadways bus (PB 10 BM 9821), coming from the Ludhiana side.