Around 24 passengers sustained severe injuries when a bus collided with a truck on Wednesday morning at Kejhia Ghati of Dulmi, under the Gola block of Ramgarh. The collision further resulted in the bus overturning and falling on an SUV that was just behind it.

While several injured persons were rushed to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, the others were admitted to a local hospital in Ramgarh.

Talking about the incident, eyewitnesses said that the bus and the truck were coming from the opposite directions and suddenly collided with each other. The overturning and falling of the bus on the SUV seriously injured its drivers and a few others.

The Rajappa Police, under whose jurisdiction the accident happened, arrived at the spot immediately to rescue the passengers from the mangled bus and the SUV.

Local residents, who gathered on the spot, helped police in sending injured people to Gola community health centre. Police had to bring a gas cutter to take out a trapped person from the mangled bus, which was travelling from Dhanbad to Ranchi.

Traffic on the Gola-Sikdiri road got disrupted for hours due to the accident.

Agriculture minister Badal Patralekh stands in front of the mangled bus and speaks to officials on the accident spot in the Ramgarh district on Wednesday. Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar

State agriculture minister Badal Patralekh, who was travelling to Bokaro, visited the spot and asked the RIMS administration to provide better treatment facilities to the injured people admitted there. He had refused to change his route despite being advised to do so, to take stock of the situation.

Patralekh also spoke to Ramgarh MLA of Congress Mamta Devi for updates, and assured her of all help from his side