The passengers of the chartered bus which plies between Okhla and Dilshad Garden will never forget Wednesday’s nightmarish journey home. And not just they, the evening will be etched in the memory of their families and friends, who spent a harrowing evening at the hospital trying to get the doctors’ attention and thanking God for the close shave.

Poonam, 25, who works in Nehru Place and takes the bus regularly, sustained injuries in her hands. Visibly shaken at escaping death so narrowly, she said: “The bus suddenly swerved to the left and rolled down headlong. I was sitting in one of the front seats and toppled over. My hands were injured but I could still manage to pull myself out of the bus.”

Jyoti, 23, who too works in Nehru Place and is a regular on this bus, could not wait to go home. Traumatised and with a fractured arm, this resident of Guru Tegh Bahadur Colony couldn’t get over the sudden shock of the incident either. “It all happened so suddenly we could barely understand what went wrong,” she said, nearly in tears.

The passengers who sustained serious injuries were mostly women, who were sitting in the front. Most victims regularly take the bus on their way home from offices in Nehru Place, Okhla and Kalkaji.

Extra work saved one
Vishvajeet Mishra, a resident of Dilshad Garden who regularly takes the bus from the Kalkaji Depot, luckily missed it on Wednesday. “This bus usually leaves at 6.10 pm, but I had to take the next one as there was more work in office today. On my way home, I got stuck in the jam near the spot where the accident happened,” said Mishra, who works as an accounts manager in a garment export house. “The driver usually drove very carefully and it is surprising why he was speeding today,” he added.