Sonepur: Twelve persons were injured, eight among the critically, when a bus carrying members of a groom’s wedding party overturned on the Sonepur-Binika road in Sonepur district in the early hours of Sunday.
The incident occurred around 2:30 am near Kartang village under Binika police station limits.
According to sources, the bus, which was carrying 58 passengers, had gone to Kamgaon village in Bheden tehsil of Boudh district for a wedding function and was returning to a village in Sohela tehsil of Bargarh district when it veered off the road, fell into a field, and overturned. It is being suspected that the driver might have dozed off at the wheel, leading to the loss of control.
Locals, who spotted the overturned bus, immediately alerted Binika police and dialed the 108 emergency ambulance service. Police, along with the Fire Services team, rushed to the spot and rescued the trapped passengers by breaking the glass windows of the vehicle.
The injured were rushed to districts headquarters hospital in Sonepur. Eight among them with grievous injuries were later shifted to VIMSAR at Burla.
Binika police has seized the bus and launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.
