On Wednesday, Bhubaneswar woke up to an early morning pile-up involving three buses and a truck at Tamando Square on National Highway 5 on Wednesday. The accident halted traffic on the major thoroughfare, also known as Chennai Road, for about two hours. The accident left the vehicles badly mangled and the driver of one of the buses critically injured. However, 30 passengers escaped with minor cuts and bruises.

The driver, Niladri Pradhan, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The injured passengers were rushed to AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and Capital Hospital. They were released after first-aid.

The pile-up occurred when a private bus coming from Phulbani rammed into the rear of another passenger vehicle that was coming from Brahmanigaon.

"After the two buses collided, a fish-laden truck that was just behind the two vehicles applied emergency brake and in the process it skidded off the road and hit another private bus coming from Bhanjanagar," said a police officer.

"It took us more than an hour to rescue the bus driver. He was sandwiched between the bus and the truck. The metal frame of the bus had to be cut and we had to call mechanics to prise open certain parts of the vehicle to bring him out. He was rushed to the nearest hospital," said inspector in charge of Tamando police Kishore Chandra Mund.

In another accident around the same time, a Mercedes driver lost control of his vehicle near Sainik School Square and rammed into six roadside shops and hit a car before flipping over. No one was injured as the shops were closed when the accident occurred.

Text by Lelin Mallick

Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee