Hyderabad: A tour guide and the driver of a private bus were killed, and around 25 persons, including the staff and students of a college, were injured in an accident on NH 44 in Jadcherla on Tuesday morning. The mishap occurred when the bus driver in an attempt to avoid a woman crossing the road, rammed into a trailer truck parked by the roadside. The students belonging to Al Shifa College of Pharmacy in Kerala were going to Hyderabad on an educational tour.

The dead are Alameen O.P., 28, the cleaner, and Rajeev Rajan, 30, a tour guide, both hailing from Kerala. Police said 28 students of the Al Shifa College in the Malappuram district of Kerala, including 20 girls, eight boys and three tutors were on way to Hyderabad. They started from Kerala on Monday evening in a bus owned by Pompi Travels with two drivers Hakeem and Alameen and a guide on board. On Tuesday morning, Hakeem was at the wheel and the bus was passing through Mahbubnagar district.

“When the bus reached Macharam village the driver saw a woman crossing the road, and in an attempt to avoid the woman, he turned left. As the vehicle was speeding it rammed into a trawler parked by the roadside,” Jadcherla town inspector B. Gangadhar said. Alameen and Rajeev who were sitting behind the driver got stuck between the two vehicles and died on the spot. Driver Hakeem escaped with minor injuries.

Based on a complaint from Sheson Joseph, as assistant professor on board the bus, police registered a case for causing death by rash driving against Hakeem and a case against the driver of the trailer truck, Kamlesh Upadhay, for parking the vehicle loaded with heavy steel pipes on the national highway without indications.