Vadakkencherry accident: KSRTC to provide Rs10 lakh insurance to victims' families

Nine people, including five students were killed and over 40 were injured after a private bus hit a state-run KSRTC bus from behind in Kerala's Palakkad district on October 7, 2022. Photo: Manorama

 Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will provide an insurance amount of Rs 10 lakh to families of the three passengers who died during the Vadakkencherry bus accident.

The insurance sum is the amount listed under personal accident insurance coverage in KSRTC Act, 2014.

A sum of Rs 2 lakh will be released to the family of Rohit Raj, who died in the crash, as an emergency measure on Monday. The rest of the amount will transferred after due process. The families of other passengers will receive the sum after the formalities are completed.

The insurance will be covered by New India Assurance Co.Ltd.

KSRTC pays over Rs 2 crore as premium to the insurance firm annually after collecting a cess of Re 1 or more from passengers through tickets. There is also a provision for providing insurance to those injured during accident.

The KSRTC insurance is over and above the compensation paid by the Motor Insurance.

Nine people, including five students were killed and over 40 were injured after a private bus hit a state-run KSRTC bus from behind in Kerala's Palakkad district on Wednesday.

Three KSRTC passengers had died during the accident.

The accident occurred around 11.30pm on Wednesday when the private tourist bus hit the rear end of the government bus.

The tourist vehicle was driven at a high speed, over 97 km per hour, and the accident happened while the driver attempted to overtake a car, Kerala Road Transport Minister Antony Raju said. Preliminary reports indicated that the accident occurred due to negligence and over-speeding, the Minister added.

The driver of the KSRTC bus told reporters that he was driving at a speed of around 40 km per hour when the private bus suddenly hit his vehicle from behind and he barely managed to control the vehicle and prevent it from falling into a ditch.

Visuals showed a large piece of the state-transport vehicle inside the tourist bus. The private vehicle had started from the Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School in Ernakulam at 7pm on Wednesday with 42 students and five teachers.

The KSRTC bus was going from Kottarakkara in Kerala to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and had 81 passengers.

(With PTI inputs.)

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