Woman killed, several injured as bus ploughs into thatched house in Kohima

Principal Correspondent
Kohima, December 23

An adivasi woman was killed while several others injured when a city bus ploughed into a kutcha house along the road side on National Highway-29, Hospital Road, Kohima today. Sources said the incident occurred around 4.30 pm when the driver of the city bus (NL01-B-0501) lost control of the bus while going down from the Box Cutting near WW-II Cemetery connecting Hospital Road plunged into the roadside house.
Surprisingly, the bus went over the more than one feet thick footpath before striking the house, killing the adivasi woman on the spot while the driver sustained severe injuries. However, the exact number of occupants, injured persons and how many were admitted in the hospital could not be ascertained.
The victim was crushed under the front tyre of the bus inside her rented house while a restaurant was damaged in the accident.
This is the fourth such severe accident which led to killings of pedestrians.
Meanwhile, irked over the several such accidents within the area after the inauguration of the Box Cutting to ease traffic congestion to some extent in November 2013 and non-compliance of the New Market Panchayat and Youth Organisation memos to the district administration not to allow heavy vehicles to take the route, the colony youth blocked the Highway for more than three hours without even allowing the police to tow the bus and pull out the victim stuck beneath the bus.
The district administration and police had a joint meeting with the house owner and NMYO to negotiate on the demand of the house owner for compensation to the damage caused and the victim’s family. Besides, the NMYO has also demanded construction of a cross bar near the Box Cutting restricting entry of vehicles through the route and also construction of pedestrian protections along the footpaths on Hospital Road.
It was only around 8.30 pm that the body of the victim was taken out. But the blockade of vehicles to and fro continued with the negotiations continuing till the time of filing his report. The actual cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained.