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Killer school bus torched

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Road rage: Scene of the accident with the damaged bus in the background in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

BHUBANESWAR: Angry people torched an empty school bus that hit a two-wheeler from behind resulting in death of a youth here on Tuesday.

The victim has been identified as Niladri Ojha, a 22-year-old youth from Kendrapara district.

The accident took place when Ojha along with his friend were about to take a U-turn for crossing to another route.

The bus that belonged St Xavier High School hit them behind near Sastri Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Ojha died on the spot while Tapas Patra who was with him sustained severe injuries.

Not convinced about Ojha’s condition, bystanders immediately rushed him to government-run Capital Hospital where doctors declared him received-dead.

Meanwhile, the mob started pelting stones at the bus and thrashed the driver.

Enraged further over delay in arrival of police, they set the bus on fire. Vehicular movement along the busy road was affected for over an hour.

Police sent reinforcement to control the agitating people.

After Nayapalli police apprehended the bus driver, Jagannath Behera (30), normalcy returned.

The road from Airport to Infocity was recently developed into a four-lane road while there is little presence of traffic police through out the stretch.

One could find a traffic police post at Power House Junction and another at Jaydev Vihar Square on National Highway 5. Besides, all important road stretch has been left free for all. Even during evening hour, the Kalinga Hospital junction is not manned by traffic personnel.

Despite reports of regular accidents followed by torching of vehicles, city police is yet to strengthen the traffic police presence.

Moreover, the PCR vans are hardly found to be warning drivers speeding their vehicles through the road.

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