Survivors Endure Flames and Freezing Wait After Deadly Karnataka Bus Crash

Chitradurga/Bengaluru: Passengers who managed to flee a burning bus following a collision with a truck near Hiriyur in Karnataka early Thursday described a nightmarish sequence of events, where escaping the fire was just the beginning of their suffering amid delayed emergency medical response.

The accident claimed six lives and left 28 others injured, including three with severe burns in the sleeper coach and 25 with lesser wounds. Most travelers were asleep when the impact occurred, only to be awakened by rapidly spreading smoke that made breathing difficult. In desperation, many broke windows and leaped to safety, suffering injuries as the vehicle was quickly consumed by flames.

Hemaraj, en route to Gokarna with his wife Kalpana and their eight-year-old son, recounted the terror: “We were in deep sleep. I suddenly felt something falling on my head from above. When I looked around, everything was dark and filled with smoke. I realised a fire had broken out, and I immediately pushed my son out through the window. Then my wife jumped. I looked towards the back of the bus and heard people crying for help and shouting in panic. By then, the fire had reached us. I had no choice but to jump out through the window.”

For those who escaped, initial relief gave way to frustration and pain. “We were alive, but in pain. We were shivering in the cold, injured, with the bus still burning in front of us. There was no ambulance,” said Varun, a tech professional on board, in an interview with TOI.

Survivors reported that, despite multiple calls to emergency services, the first ambulance arrived about an hour and a half later, with additional ones reaching between 3:40 am and 4 am. “The passengers were crying for help. We had burns and fractures, standing in the cold, waiting. There was no quick response at all,” another survivor told TOI. Manjunath M, who sustained nearly 70% burns, endured particular agony during the prolonged wait for hospital transfer.

Firefighters arrived within 20 minutes, but medical aid was significantly slower. Local residents stepped in as initial rescuers. Ritish Kumar, a driver from a private firm, mobilized friends from Gayatri Jalashaya Sangha after hearing about the crash. “Firefighters came quickly, and along with locals, we tried to pull people out… We helped them escape,” he said. Villagers later assisted in transporting the injured to government hospitals in Hiriyur and Shira.

Ambulance drivers attributed the delays to severe traffic congestion on the highway, with jams stretching up to 3 km after the collision halted movement.