A major accident was narrowly averted in Ballarpur town of Chandrapur district on Thursday when a giant tree standing beside the road suddenly came crashing down on a passenger bus of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, or TSRTC, that was travelling from Chandrapur to Adilabad. Around 40 passengers were on board at the time. The tree's heavy branches slammed into the front section of the bus, shattering the windscreen and pushing branches right into the cabin. Thanks to the driver's quick response, none of the passengers suffered serious injuries.
The incident took place on the main road directly in front of the government hospital in Ballarpur. Eyewitnesses said the tree came down with a loud crashing sound and toppled onto the bus without warning, triggering brief panic among onlookers and people nearby. For a few tense moments passengers inside held their breath, but fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
Driver's alertness prevented a bigger tragedy
Bus driver Mallesh Yadav said that the moment he heard the sound of the tree falling, he immediately hit the brakes without any hesitation. That split second reaction meant the tree landed on the front portion of the bus rather than further back. Yadav said that had the bus moved forward even a few more feet, the entire tree could have come down directly on the roof of the bus, raising the possibility of far greater casualties. In effect, a gap of just a few feet, combined with the driver's presence of mind, is what kept the accident from turning into a much bigger tragedy.
Traffic disrupted for nearly three hours
After the tree fell, traffic on the Chandrapur Telangana main road came to a complete halt for close to three hours, with long queues of vehicles building up on both sides of the road. Once the administration was alerted, officials rushed to the spot and used a JCB, a crane and a cutter machine to chop up and clear the tree's thick branches from the road. It took nearly three hours of continuous effort before the route could be reopened for normal vehicular movement.
Weakened roots blamed on boundary wall digging
Local residents have raised serious allegations over what caused the tree to fall in the first place. They claim that deep pits dug for the construction of a boundary wall on the government hospital premises had already weakened the tree's roots on one side. According to residents, verbal complaints about this danger had been made multiple times to the concerned department and the contractor carrying out the construction work, but no corrective action was taken in time. Continuous rain further loosened the grip of the already weakened tree, and it eventually gave way and fell exactly when a bus full of passengers was passing beneath it.
