Kasaragod: A 39-year-old woman suffered a fracture to her left leg when the floor of a KSRTC Priyadarshini bus broke following a tyre burst near Padannakkad in Kanhangad.

Kunjayisha, a tailor, had boarded the Payyannur-Kasaragod bus from Nileshwar to go to Kanhangad to buy fabric for the nighties she stitches at home. Her seat was right above the bus's rear tyre, which suddenly burst with a loud bang, said her father, Mohammed Kunhi, a fisherman from Azithala boat jetty in Nileshwar.

The force of the tyre burst cracked open the floor beneath her seat, and her left leg slipped into the cavity. "There were cries and chaos inside, and the bus stopped after travelling a short distance. By then my daughter's leg was broken," he said.

KSRTC employees, along with the owner of a roadside eatery, helped take Kunjayisha to Arimala Hospital. But the hospital did not have the facility to perform the emergency surgery, so they shifted her to Aishal Hospital in Kanhangad, where she underwent emergency surgery. Doctors have indicated she may need another surgery depending on the outcome of the first procedure.

The family is now worried about the cost of treatment. Kunhi said doctors had told them the surgery would cost around ₹1.5 lakh, with another ₹1 lakh likely to be needed for subsequent treatment.

Kunjayisha is married to Jaffar, who also works as a tailor at a shop in Kanhangad. They live in a house built on three cents of land allotted to them by the government at Bangalam, close to Nileshwar. The government had also provided ₹4 lakh towards the construction.

The couple, childless for 15 years, underwent treatment after they built the house and now have a three-year-old daughter.

Mohammed Kunhi said the police told him that KSRTC may not provide financial assistance for the treatment and that compensation might have to be sought through legal proceedings. “We are a poor family. I hope the Collector can provide us some interest-free financial assistance to meet the medical expenses. We will return the money once we receive the compensation,” he said.

The Kanhangad police have registered a case in connection with the accident.