New Delhi: Nine people died and 28 were injured in a horrific crash between a bus and an SUV car in Gujarat’s Navsari district early on Saturday morning after the driver suffered a heart attack and lost control of the vehicle. The bus was full of people returning from the Pramukh Swami Maharaj Shatabdi Mahotsav event in Surat when it rammed into a Toyota Fortuner car on the Navsari national highway number 48. The bus driver was taken to a hospital for treatment, where he died.
Eight of the nine occupants of the car died, and 28 people on the bus were injured. 11 were taken to a private hospital. The luxury bus was going from Surat to Valsad. The accident occurred near Vesma village, while the SUV was coming from the opposite direction, Navsari Superintendent of Police (SP) Rushikesh Upadhyay told NDTV.
Those travelling in the SUV were residents of Ankleshwar in Gujarat and were on their way back to their hometown from Valsad, Upadhyay was quoted as saying, adding that the passengers of the bus were from Valsad.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah condoled the deaths in a Twitter post.
The crash led to traffic disruption on the highway, after which the police got the bus removed from the road using a crane and traffic resumed as usual. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the inaugural function of the Pramukh Swami Maharaj Shatabdi Mahotsav in Ahmedabad on December 14.
