7 passengers die as buses collide in Salem
SALEM: Seven people, including two women, died on the spot and 40 others sustained injuries when two buses collided with each other at Mamangam in Salem around 1am on Saturday.
The names and other details of the deceased people were not known, said the Karuppur police who registered a case.
They said a private bus was heading to Dharmapuri from Salem. The bus hit a goods carrier van that was parked on the roadside near Mamangam on the Salem-Bengaluru National Highway.
"One of the tyres of the goods carrier van was punctured, and the driver parked the vehicle on the roadside," a police officer said. The driver of the private bus did not notice the goods carrier van. The bus hit the van from behind. The driver lost control of the bus. The bus crossed the median and entered the other side of the road. The driver's attempt to stop the vehicle went in vain.
Meanwhile, an omnibus, heading to Kerala from Bengaluru, hit the Dharmapuri-bound bus. "The omnibus that was coming from the opposite direction hit the Dharmapuri-bound bus. After that, the omnibus bus fell on its side on the roadside," the officer said.
The deceased included passengers in both the buses. The injured were sent to Salem Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital.
Salem district collector Rohini R Bhajibhakare, city commissioner of police K Shankar, district revenue officer R Sukumar and other officials visited the accident spot.
courtesy : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
