8 charred to death in bus-truck collision

ERODE: Eight persons, including a two-year-old child, burned to death when a long-distance private transport bus rammed into the rear left side of a tanker lorry carrying aviation turbine fuel from Chennai to Coimbatore airport, near Kumilamparappu in Chithodu near here, on National Highway 47 at about 3.30 am on Sunday.Bus driver Sasikumar, 28 of Chinnasalem; S M Kevalchand Jain, 61, a businessma­n of Chikmagalur, Karnataka; his wife Kiranbai, 54; K Muth­ukumar, 56, regional manage­r of Indian Overseas Bank, Visakhapatnam; his wife Shanmugavadivu, 50; Jayalakshmi, 60 of Bengaluru and her granddaughter Kamalika, 2, perished in the fire that engulfed the bus as the fuel spilled into it on collision.Ilavarasan, 50, a hotel owner from Rathnapuri, Coimbatore  who was admitted to hospital in critical condition, later died. Dineshbalaji, 25, a software engineer, is being treated at private hospital in Coimbatore. The 23 other passengers escaped with minor injuries as they jumped out through  the emergency exit at the back of the bus. They were treated at various private hospitals in Bhavani and Erode. The mishap occurred when the sleeper bus, proceeding from Bengaluru to Coimba­tore with its full capacit­y of 32 persons, rammed into the lorry’s tail end while trying to overtake it from the left. The highly inflamm­able fuel in one section of the tank spilled into the bus, and it was soon engulfed in flames.