Humanity first: Local tribals risk own safety to save people in Araku Ghat bus accident

Visakhapatnam: Had it not been for local tribals, the causalities in the private bus accident on the Ghat road at Damuku in Vizag Agency on Friday night could have been higher. A few locals close the accident spot, were the first to see the private travel bus rolling down into 100 feet gorge on Friday night.

Four persons, including an eight-month-old baby girl, were killed and 22 others injured a few of them critically, in the major accident on Friday night.

Thanks to the heroic rescue efforts of the 40 local tribals in the dark night, many tourists with serious head injuries could be lifted from the 80ft deep gorge onto the Araku Ghat road where the bus veered off. "While the cops arranged ambulances, the villagers managed to pull out the survivors using torch lights," said K Sudhakar Rao, sub-inspector of Ananthagiri police station.

Superintendent of Police, Vizag Rural, B Krishna Rao said that the deceased were identified as K Saritha (30), K Satyanarayana (50), Nitya (8 months) and N Latha (30).

The persons who suffered severely injured persons were identified as K Swapna, K Sailaja, K Kalyani, K Meena, K Aravindh, K Latha, U Krishnaveni, Chandrakala, K Isha, and Abhiram.

An Anganwadi teacher Lakshmi from Damuku said they had rushed to the accident spot after receiving a call. "It was very dark and difficult to see. We have seen some children crying with injuries. We brought them out safely. It was sad to see children crying for their parents," she said.

A pall of gloom descended on the Seetanagar area of Shaikpet in Hyderabad as news spread about a bus accident involving the family of Kottam Satyanarayana, a retired State Bank of India employee.

Twenty four members of the family of Kottam Satyanarayana were on their way to Bhadrachalam when tragedy struck in the Araku Valley. At the time of the incident, there were 26 persons on the bus. A representative of Dinesh Travels, to which the vehicle belonged, said that the mini-bus left Hyderabad on February 10.