R B Jagadish

Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (EP)

Karkala, Aug 3: Seventeen people have been injured in a collision between a bus and a tempo at Nellikatte, near Hirgana on Wednesday, August 3. Among three people who were seriously injured, two have been admitted in Manipal KMC Hospital and another person has been admitted in Mangaluru Wenlock Hospital. The remaining injured people are being treated in taluk hospital and private hospitals.

'Nischita' named private bus was on its way from Dharmasthala to Hebri via Karkala while the tempo approaching from the opposite direction lost control and hit the bus. Tempo driver Pravin Nayak and passenger Sunil Nayak have been seriously injured in the impact.

Among bus passengers Mohini(62) has sustained serious injuries.

Prajna(21), Dhananjay(23), Apoorva(18), Sunil(20), Priya(18), Jayanti(53), Savithri(47), Pravin(38), Antony(36), Vasanthi(52), Kanaka(19), Swathi(19), Akshaya Nayak (29) and bus driver N R Swamy(45) are the others injured.

Students going home from school were in large numbers in the bus and they have sustained minor injuries. Traffic was disrupted for some time due to the accident.

A police case has been registered in Karkala town police station.

Hirgana grama panchayat president Sathosh Shetty, Chetan, municipal councillor Shubhada Rao, Mohammed Sharif, social activist K P Padmavathi and others visited the injured in the hospital and helped them.

Scarcity of doctors in taluk hospital

As some of the doctors in taluk hospital have taken Voluntary retirement and substitute doctors have not been appointed, the patients coming to the hospital are facing problems. The injured in emergency cases have to be inevitably ferried to Mangaluru or Manipal. Though several reports are published about it in the newspapers, the people representatives and officials have continued to remain indifferent.