Nine persons, including five school students, were killed while several other injured after a tourist bus carrying students from Mulanthuruthy in Ernakulam rammed into a KSRTC superfast bus at Vadakkancherry in Kerala’s Palakkad in the early hours of Thursday

The mishap occurred when the tourist bus carrying 41 students of Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School, Mulanthuruthy on a school excursion to Ooty, was trying to overtake the KSRTC bus, but it slipped and hit the KSRTC bus at the rear. As a result both buses overturned. Rescuers had to break open both vehicles to rescue those trapped.

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The deceased were identified as VK Vishnu (33), a physical education teacher at the  Baselius Vidyaniketan  senior secondary school, Mulanthuruthy,Plus 2 students Anjana Ajith (17), CS Emmanuel (17), Class 10 students Chris Winter Bon Thomas (15), Diya Rajesh (15) and Elna Jose (15).
The deceased KSRTC bus passengers were identified as Rohit Raj (24) from Thrissur and O Anoop (22) from Kollam and Deepu.

Around 40 persons sustained injuries in the accident. Of them, the condition of 12 is reportedly critical. They have been admitted at government medical college hospital, Trissur Twenty eight persons who sustained minor injuries were admitted in nearby hospitals.

The accident took place near the Anjumoorthy Mangalam bus stop on Walayar-Vadakkencherry national highway. The KSRTC superfast bus from Kottarakara was proceeding to Coimbatore in neighbouring Tamil Nadu
“We may not have lost our friends, and Vishnu sir, if the bus driver had reduced the speed of the vehicle.  It was the rash driving that ended in the tragic accident,” said a student who survived the accident

The Kerala High Court on Thursday initiated suo motu proceedings on the Vadakkancherry bus accident. A Division Bench comprising Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice P G Ajithkumar initiated the suo motu proceedings and has sought report from the Police Department and the Motor Vehicles Department on the accident.

Expressing distress over the Vadakkanchery bus accident, a single bench of the Kerala High Court also suo motu impleaded the Transport Commissioner, who is also the Road Safety Commissioner, as an additional respondent in a pending matter related to the poor condition of roads in the state.

The bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran directed the Transport Commissioner to be present in person before the court or appear online on Friday when the issue would be taken up again.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the death of nine people in the bus accident at Vadakkencherry in Palakkad. Taking to Twitter, the PMO informed that Rs 2 lakh will be granted to the kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs 50,000.