NOIDA: The driver and conductor of a bus that caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida allegedly ignored warnings from passengers about a burning smell and refused to stop the vehicle, according to an FIR filed on a passenger’s complaint.Passengers repeatedly asked the driver to stop after noticing the smell, but the driver and conductor allegedly told them, “If you want to die, then die; we won’t stop the bus,” the FIR said, according to news agency PTI.Nine passengers were killed after the bus, travelling from Delhi to Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, caught fire late Wednesday night.The FIR was registered at Jewar police station on the complaint of Suneel Kumar, a resident of Hamirpur district. Kumar said he boarded the Raj Kalpana Travels bus from Delhi’s Kashmere Gate around 9pm on Wednesday. About 30-35 passengers were on board, he said.
Passengers noticed burning smell
According to Kumar’s complaint, the bus reached the 33-km mark on the Yamuna Expressway at around 11.30pm when passengers noticed a burning smell coming from the driver’s cabin.The driver allegedly dismissed the smell as something common in the bus and did not stop to check the vehicle, the complaint said.Kumar further alleged that the driver and conductor continued smoking bidis and cigarettes in the cabin before flames suddenly erupted near the driver’s seat.Passengers raised an alarm and again asked the driver to stop, but the two allegedly refused.By the time the bus stopped, the fire had spread through the vehicle and it had filled with smoke, according to the complaint.Kumar said he and several other passengers managed to jump out of the bus, while some passengers remained trapped inside.Several passengers suffered burns and were taken to Kailash Hospital in Jewar for treatment. Kumar said he was later informed at the hospital that nine people had been declared dead.Police said the nine passengers died from burns and suffocation.The complaint accused the driver and conductor of “deliberate, gross negligence, rashness and reckless disregard” for passenger safety.It also alleged that passengers’ bags, luggage and mobile phones were destroyed in the fire, including belongings kept in the luggage compartment and on the roof of the bus.The driver and conductor have been detained, police said, adding that further investigation is underway.
