Surviving a terrifying bus fire after a collision was only the first ordeal for passengers near Hiriyur, Karnataka. Their second battle was a prolonged, painful wait in the bitter cold for medical help to arrive in the early hours of Thursday.
A Night of Terror on the Highway
In a horrific incident, a sleeper coach bus collided with a truck, leading to a major fire. Most passengers were asleep when the violent crash jolted them awake. The vehicle quickly filled with thick, suffocating smoke, leaving many gasping for breath.
With no time to spare, several passengers kicked open windows and leapt out of the burning bus, sustaining injuries as flames engulfed the structure behind them. While three passengers survived serious wounds including burns, 25 others suffered minor injuries.
Survivors' Harrowing Accounts of Escape and Wait
Hemaraj, traveling with his wife Kalpana and eight-year-old son to Gokarna, described the chaos. "We were in deep sleep. I suddenly felt something fall on my head. Everything was dark and filled with smoke," he recounted. Realizing a fire had broken out, he immediately pushed his son out through a window, followed by his wife. "I looked towards the back and heard people crying in panic. The fire had reached us. I had no choice but to jump."
For many, the initial panic soon turned into anger and despair. Varun, a techie on the bus, said, "We were alive, but in pain. We were shivering in the cold, injured, with the bus still burning. There was no ambulance."
According to survivors, despite repeated emergency calls, the first ambulance reached the accident spot nearly an hour and a half later. Two more ambulances arrived only between 3:40 AM and 4:00 AM. "We had burns and fractures, standing in the cold, waiting. There was no quick response at all," another survivor stated. Manjunath M, who suffered nearly 70% burns, faced an especially harrowing wait.
Locals Step In as First Responders Amid Delayed Aid
While firefighters reportedly reached the site within 20 minutes, medical help lagged far behind. In this critical gap, locals emerged as crucial first responders. Ritish Kumar, a private driver who rushed to the spot, called his friends from the Gayatri Jalashaya Sangha for assistance.
"Firefighters came quickly, and along with locals, we tried to pull people out... We helped them escape," Kumar said. With ambulances still missing, locals eventually helped shift the injured to Hiriyur and Shira government hospitals once vehicles became available.
Ambulance drivers cited a massive traffic jam on the highway as the reason for the delay. "With vehicle movements at a standstill after the crash, we took a long time. The traffic extended up to around 3 km," one driver explained.
The incident near Hiriyur highlights the critical challenges in emergency medical response on highways, where the compassion of local citizens often becomes the first line of aid for accident victims.
