School bus on wrong side of expressway rams into SUV, 6 dead

Six members of a family died and two were severely injured on Tuesday morning when their SUV collided head-on with a school bus moving on the wrong side of an expressway here, a senior police official said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic (Ghaziabad), Ramanand Kushwaha said the accident took place around 6 am on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident. In a tweet in Hindi, his office said, "#UPCM @myogiadityanath has expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in the road accident in district Ghaziabad." The chief minister has instructed officials of the district administration to immediately take the injured to a hospital and provide them with proper treatment. He also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured, the tweet said.

Kushwaha said the bus had gone to Delhi and was plying on the wrong side of the expressway after refilling CNG near the Ghazipur border.

The family was travelling in the SUV, which was headed for Gurugram from Meerut, he said.

Two people are undergoing treatment for severe injuries, the official said, adding that there were eight people in the car.

"The bus driver (identified as Prem Pal) has been arrested. He was at complete fault as he was moving on the wrong side," Kushwaha said.

The deceased have been identified as Narendra (45), his wife Anita (40), sons Deepanshu (15) and Himanshu (12), niece Vanshika (7) and sister-in-law Babita (35).

Narendra's brother Dharmendra (40) and his son Kartik (5) sustained severe injuries and are undergoing treatment at a private hospital, police said.

The bus was attached to the Bal Bharti School of Noida, Additional DCP Kushwah said, adding there were no students in it at the time of the accident.

DCP (Rural) Shubham Patel told PTI that the damaged vehicles have been cleared and the blood-stained portion of the expressway cleaned.