A sleeper bus that caught fire after its air-conditioning exploded, killing nine passengers, in Greater Noida has a total of over 60 fines for many types of traffic rule violations. Out of this, over 20 are yet to be paid, records on vehicle information websites showed.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced an aid of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of those who died and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.
BR is the government’s official acronym for Bihar for use in issuing vehicle number plates. A total of over Rs 1.7 lakh is yet to be paid for the challans of the bus with the registration number ‘BR32PA8647’.
The police said the injured passengers told them that they detected the smell of something burning from the driver’s cabin and alerted him and the conductor. But the driver did not stop immediately and instead, continued smoking a cigarette inside the cabin, the police said. The first information report (FIR) said that moments later the area near the driver’s seat began burning and the fire spread fast. Firefighters said they found nine bodies inside the bus.
