A student and a bus conductor sustained injuries after a private school bus ferrying at least 30 students tipped over following a collision with a tractor at Pachgaon Chowk on National Highway 48, near Bilaspur, on Thursday morning, the police said.

According to the police, the incident took place around 7.30am, when the bus was picking up school students. The police said the bus had reached the junction when the driver of a tractor ferrying hay lost control of the vehicle while crossing the junction due to a tyre burst. The police said the tractor toppled over and rammed into the bus from the left side.

Rajender, station house officer (SHO), Bilaspur police station, said, “The bus driver tried to steer out of the path but due to the impact, it rolled over. The front and rear window panes were smashed due to the impact, but no one sustained any serious injury.”

The bus belonged to RN Tagore Senior Secondary in Jamalpur, said the SHO. The police said one girl student, whose age could not be verified, had sustained a minor injury and was rushed to a hospital in Manesar.

Uday Vir, head constable, said the girl was scared but after medical aid, was taken home by her parents. “A bus conductor, who was standing near the gate when the bus toppled, also sustained injuries to his arms, legs and face. The exact number of students in the bus cannot be estimated with certainty.”

The police said that they were not involved in the rescue of children. “When we reached the spot at 8am, the students and the teachers had left. We later contacted them and were told that no student sustained any serious injury. The tractor driver fled the spot. Police is conducting raids to round him up,” said Vir.

While initial reports suggested that the bus belonged to a private school in Sector 50 in the city, a school official denied it.

Officials of the RN Tagore Senior Secondary School could not be contacted.

Pachgaon Chowk was among the 10 most accident-prone spots identified by the traffic police in 2017, with faulty road engineering, speeding, jaywalking and sudden entry of vehicles on the highway from link roads listed as the major reasons.

First Published: Apr 26, 2019 00:29 IST