The presence of mind of a bus conductor saved the lives of 40 passengers at Gop in Puri district on Monday.

Reports reaching here said that a bus carrying about 40 passengers was going from Puri to Cuttack, a distance of nearly 100km. After covering a distance of 35km, it reached Nagpur village bazar where it stopped for a few minutes before resuming its journey. It was crossing a bridge and was about to reach Gop Bazar, 7km from Nagpur village, when the driver of the bus suffered a heart attack.

A local journalist told The Telegraph: “The bus had gone barely seven kilometres from Nagpur village when the bus driver had a stroke and slumped on the steering wheel. At that moment, the bus was crossing a bridge and was about to reach the next stoppage called Gop Bazar. The bus conductor Rashmi Ranjan Behera, who was issuing tickets to the passenger, noticed the driver falling and quickly rushed to the steering wheel and applied the brakes. The bus came to a grinding halt and the lives of all the passengers were saved.”

The driver, Sudarshan Sahu (50), was rushed to the nearby Gop hospital, where he was declared dead.

Accident claims four

Four members of a family — a 64-year-old man, his two daughters and a grandson — were killed in a road accident in Ganjam district on Tuesday. The man was riding a bike with his two daughters and grandson. His vehicle was hit by a pick-up van at Indhanpur under Gangapur police station. All of them died on the spot. The pick-up van fled from the spot.

Enraged local residents staged a road blockade and demanded immediate arrest of the driver of the pick-up van and adequate compensation for the victim’s family.

As per the state government reports, nearly 5,000 people die in road accidents annually in Odisha. In the last one decade, more than 45,000 people have lost their lives in these accidents.

State commerce and transport minister Padmanabha Behera said, “In order to reduce the fatalities in road accidents, we have launched a state-level crash investigation training programme for police and transport officials on Monday. They will be trained to offer a scientific understanding of the accident investigation process and would provide information on why the accident took place and how it would have been avoided. They will be trained to provide authentic data of an accident which in turn will facilitate policy intervention.”

The Odisha government has also launched 106 Emergency Response Vehicles which will be put into service across the state.

“People can use the 112 helpline number to avail emergency services like police, fire and ambulance. Once the information reaches them, needy people will be provided with the required help and the Emergency Response vehicle will reach the spot,” officials said.