Jaipur crash: ‘Broke window, jumped... ran for my life’
A gas leak from an LPG tanker collision near Jaipur caused a massive fireball, killing at least 12 and injuring dozens, devastating families.
When Shilpa Sharma awoke by the smell of gas at 5.30am on Friday and stepped out of her house, she thought she had stepped into a ghost town. Thick black smoke had enveloped her neighbourhood, two kilometers from where an LPG tanker collision would soon create a massive fireball on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway, killing at least 12 people and leaving dozens with severe burns.
“Our house is just 2km away from the site of the accident. It was around 5.30am that I was woken up by the smell of some gas and then I heard an explosion. Before I could even see what it was, a kid from my neighbourhood called me asking for help,” Sharma recalled.
The explosion she heard would transform an ordinary morning commute into a tragedy for dozens of families. Among them were her neighbours’ children, Dev, 21, and Riddhi, 15, whose parents were among the 32 people critically injured in the disaster.
“ I had never imagined I would see such a morning,” said Riddhi, a Class 11 student, waiting outside the burn ward of SMS Hospital. Her parents, Ramesh Sharma, 55, and Neera Sharma, 47, were on their daily morning commute to C-Scheme on their two-wheeler when they were caught in the inferno. “My father is a driver there while my mother works as househelp in a few houses. At around 5.45am, my father called me and said there was an accident and they sustained burns. When I reached there, I could not recognise my parents.”
Her brother Dev, a third-year undergraduate student, added: “It was very difficult to remove the helmet from his face. My mother also was in a similar condition. I don’t know whether they will return home or not. We have nobody else.”
The disaster happened when a truck crashed into the LPG tanker as it attempted a U-turn near Delhi Public School, creating a gas leak that quickly ignited. Among the vehicles caught in the resulting explosion were two sleeper buses, one bound for Udaipur carrying 22 passengers, and another headed to Dudu with 34 passengers.
Jagadish Kumar was among the lucky ones on the Udaipur-bound bus. “I was going to Udaipur and was sleeping. I woke up to the sound of a blast and realised something was wrong. I jumped off the bus with 10 to 12 other passengers and ran for as long as I could. I sustained some minor injuries, but I am fine. I could have died if the decision was even a minute late,” he said.
Not everyone was as fortunate. For Akhiram, a phone call in the morning would bring news of unimaginable loss. His brother Radhe Shyam, who worked as a machine operator in Khatipura, called asking for help after the explosion. “I went with him till Ajmer road this morning where my brother was waiting for a bus,” Akhiram said. “Soon after I returned home, my brother called me asking to come quickly and save him.”
When Akhiram found his brother, the latter’s clothes had almost completely burnt. Despite sustaining over 90% burns, Radhe Shyam had managed to run 500 to 700 metres in an attempt to survive. “He was really brave. Despite the conditions, he jumped off the bus, and ran about 500 to 700 metres to live. But we could not save him. He was the only earning member at home,” said Akhiram.
The tragedy claimed multiple breadwinners, leaving families devastated. Anita Meena, 28, a trainee police constable in Jaipur, was on the Dudu-bound bus, returning home to visit her family after a month. “She has been away from the family for the last one year. She has two minor children at home. Her husband is a farmer. I couldn’t tell them yet that Anita is no more,” said her brother Vasteram Meena, waiting at the mortuary.
Anita could not escape the bus, in which her body was later found.
Outside the mortuary, Khema Lal struggled to comprehend the loss of his brother, Har Lal, 34, who worked at a tiles company. “What will we do now? He left the home telling his children to study. What will I tell them?” Khema Lal said. Har Lal, the sole breadwinner for his family in Sikar, had been working in Jaipur for two years and left behind a 12-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter.
Among those who survived was Shabnam, 22, a college student returning home to Udaipur. “When the accident took place, I started calling her. But her phone was off. I reached the spot and found her with burns. We immediately took her to the SMS hospital,” said her friend Firoza Ali, adding that she had survived.
The state government has announced compensation of ₹5,00,000 for families of the deceased and ₹1,00,000 for the injured, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared additional compensation from the PM National Relief Fund.