Bus, car trapped as road caves in

Over 40 passengers had a providential escape yesterday when their bus got stuck in a big crater formed by the caving-in of a portion of the road at Anna Salai in Chennai.A car too got stuck in the crater. Traffic on the key road was affected following the incident.Tamil Nadu Finance and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said: “Fortunately, there are no casualties. All bus passengers and crew have been evacuated.”According to Chennai Metro Rail Limited sources, the incident happened at 2pm due to the impact of a tunnel boring machine which was drilling beneath Anna Salai, a few metres from the spot where the road caved in. The accident happened around 50ft from a cave-in that happened a few days ago near the flyover.The Anna Square-Vadapalani bus (25G) has stopped at the bus stop. The driver felt some movement and he thought it was a tyre puncture. When he peeped out, he saw the road caving in. The driver asked the passengers to get down immediately. After they got down, the bus started to sink.During a two-hour operation, involving officials from the transport, metro rail, police and fire service departments, both vehicles were pulled out with the help of a crane.Jayakumar told reporters the accident might have happened due to loose soil.He said: “This is the first time such an accident has happened in Chennai though metro rail work has been going on since 2009. We will use this as a learning experience and all precautions will be taken to prevent such incidents.”