11 hurt as SUV bumps TNSTC Bus

CHENNAI: Eleven passengers were injured, one of them grievously, after a State-owned Transport Corporation bus turned turtle following a collision with a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) on Tuesday morning at Kilambakkam near Tambaram on GST Road.Sources said that, about 29 passengers, including 10 Metropolitan Transport Corporation(MTC) employees, were travelling in a bus bound for Koyembedu from Kalpakkam in Kanchipuram district. Meanwhile, a speeding omni bus heading for the south was moving on the other side of the highway. When the omni bus reached the Kilambakkam intersection on GST Road at 5.30 am, it hit an SUV, which was waiting near the intersection for negotiating a U turn.The intensity of the collision was so high that it pushed the SUV to the other side of the road, which hit the Transport Corporation bus on its rear side. “This resulted in flattening of the rear tyres even as the front tyre climbed over the median and the bus turned turtle. Ten commuters, including the bus conductor, suffered minor injuries,and were later treated at the Government Hospital in Tambaram as out-patients. One person has been admitted to the Government General Hospital in Chennai,” a senior official of TNSTC said.When contacted, Kanchipuram SP S Manoharan said that the accident was a rare case. “I have seen small vehicles capsizing due to sudden application of brakes. But, it is unusual that a bus turns turtle,” he stated, while attributing the cause to poor tyres or  a probable axle failure.