Four passengers were killed and four others injured after a sleeper bus driver allegedly dozed off while driving at nearly 100 kmph, causing the bus to ram into a trailer truck on the Gorakhpur Link Expressway in Ambedkar Nagar early Friday, police said.
The accident occurred around 5.30am near in Jaitpur area when the bus was travelling from Delhi to Darbhanga in Bihar with 50 passengers on board. The three deceased were identified as Sachin Kumar (21), a resident of Vaishali district; Mohammad Naushad (32), a resident of Darbhanga district; and Parvez Ansari (39), a resident of Kushinagar district.
Most of the passengers were asleep when the crash occurred, police said. Police said efforts were underway to ascertain the identity of the fourth deceased. The impact was so severe that the entire left side of the bus was ripped open, leaving several passengers trapped inside. Police and rescue teams reached the spot after getting information. The trapped passengers were pulled out by cutting through the damaged portion of the bus and were rushed to the Trauma Centre and District Hospital in Akbarpur. Ambedkar Nagar SP Prachi Singh inspected the accident site and supervised the rescue operation.