MUMBAI: In a horrific incident in the wee hours today, a private tourist bus carrying 33 passengers from Nagpur to Pune on the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg (express highway) overturned and caught fire in Sindkhedraja in Buldhana killing 25 occupants including a two years old girl child while the rest eight are badly injured. Among the eight surviving, includes the driver and the driver's assistant. 

According to witnesses and police sources, the bus hit a median barrier pole on the expressway at about 1.30 am past Friday night and Sunday early morning overturned and caught fire, most possibly because the driver of the bus might have fallen asleep while driving, as an early investigation has ruled out tyre burst.   

The police have registered a case for negligent driving against the driver however maintain that possible reasons for the accident would be ascertained only after the investigation is complete. 

Witnesses from around the area who were first to reach the spot said that the bus caught fire immediately on turning over most likely because of fuel spillage and within a few minutes it was completely charred, the surviving eight were able to break the window glass and get out even as the bus burned, the rest we not so fortunate and perished. 

The sleeper coach is owned by Vidarbha Travels and had left Nagpur for Pune at 4 pm on Friday evening and was cruising about 60 to 70 kilometres per hour had travelled around 150 kilometres from Karanja in Yavatmal where it had halted for dinner.

The 701-kilometre Samruddhi expressway largely considered a pet project of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is currently operational on a 601-kilometre stretch up to Bharvir in Nashik, however since its opening for the public on December 12 last year, it has been plagued by numerous accidents killing several people. According to figures about three to four accidents are reported on the expressway every day and in a total of 358 accidents to date. While several people have sustained injuries in various accidents, about 88 people have died in about 39 fatal accidents in the past six months. 

Among other reasons, experts cite the phenomena of highway hypnosis as a major cause of accidents on the Samruddhi expressway which is a phenomenon that generally motorists experience during long, uninterrupted drives on highways which leads to a feeling of sleeping with open eyes and a brief disconnect with the outer world.

Both Fadnavis and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde are expected to visit the accident site later today and the state might announce compensations to those who lost their lives and those who are injured.