A sleeper bus carrying over 70 migrant labourers was engulfed in flames in Rajasthan after coming in contact with a high-tension power line, a tragedy officials say could have been averted had the driver not tried to skip a Rs 100 toll.
To save the small fee, the driver turned off the highway onto a narrow village road, steering the overloaded bus straight into low-hanging live wires, a decision that cost three lives and left six others severely injured.
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The vehicle had set out from Puranpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district, ferrying labourers to a brick kiln near Todi village in Manoharpur, about 70 km from Jaipur.
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