Driver charred to death in bus-truck collision on highway in UP's Firozabad

A 48-year-old bus driver was charred to death and around 20 passengers were injured in a collision between a double-decker bus and an overturned sand-laden truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

A 48-year-old bus driver was charred to death and around 20 passengers were injured after a double-decker bus had a collision with an overturned sand-laden truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway here early Friday, police said.

The accident took place around 2.30 am near Kilometre 46 under the Matsena Police Station area.

The sleeper bus, headed to Gurugram from Kanpur, rammed into the dumper that had turned upside down after hitting the divider, the police said.

The collision triggered a short circuit that set the bus on fire, forcing passengers to break the window panes and jump out.

The deceased driver was identified as Shambhu, a resident of the Bari area in Kanpur.

Superintendent of Police (City) Ravi Shankar Prasad and City Magistrate Vinod Kumar Pandey told reporters that around 40 to 45 passengers were on the bus at the time of the incident.

''Twenty passengers were injured in the incident, of whom seven seriously injured persons were admitted to Firozabad hospital, while others were referred to Saifai,'' the SP said.

It took fire tenders nearly three hours to bring the blaze under control.

The driver's body was sent for a post-mortem.