13-year-old loses arm after school bus carrying 40 turns turtle in Greater Noida

Two teachers and two students of Vishwa Bharti Public School (Greater Noida) — including a 13-year-old boy who lost his arm — were seriously injured after their school bus toppled over in Greater Noida on Monday. Police said a case of rash driving has been lodged against the driver, who is absconding.

This is the third incident reported this year where children have been put at risk while travelling on a school bus in Noida and Greater Noida.

According to police, accident took place around 2.30 pm near the first roundabout near Crowne Plaza Hotel in Surajpur area of Greater Noida. “It seems the driver was speeding and he lost control at the roundabout. The road is quite broad, but the turn itself is sharp. Also at the time of the accident, visibility was poor because of rain,” Anurag Singh, deputy superintendent of police, Greater Noida, said.

Police have identified the injured students as Prince (11) and Priyanshu (13), while the teachers were identified as Ranjana and Archana.

Police said Priyanshu had lost his arm. “Priyanshu must have been sitting near the window with his arm outside at the time of the incident,” Singh said.

According to police, the bus which is part of the school’s fleet, was carrying 40 passengers. Of the 40, 31 suffered minor injuries, police said.

Police said pulling out children from the bus was difficult, but with the help of locals, they managed to get most of them out unscathed. The prince and the two teachers were rushed to the nearby Kailash Hospital in Greater Noida. Priyanushu, whose arm had been crushed, was rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi.

A senior administrative official at the AIIMS Trauma Centre said Priyanshu reached the hospital at 6.30 pm. “Different department heads examined the boy’s injury. He had a severe crush injury on his arm that completely ruled out any possibility of re-implantation,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Preetinder Singh, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, said the school was asked to file a complaint. “Initially, they agreed. But we could not get in touch with them later and no one from the school management turned up to file a complaint. So we filed a complaint on our own and are investigating the matter,” Singh said.

Despite repeated attempts, the school management, couldn’t be contacted for comment.