Cuttack, Sept. 10: Bimal Mahakud smiles even though he nearly died.

The 17-year-old first-year Plus II arts student suffered pelvic bone injuries in the bus accident at Deulajhari near Athmalik town in Angul district on Friday morning.

Now recovering from the injuries in the trauma care unit of SCB Medical College Hospital here, he has a positive frame of mind and strength to recover from the shock. "It was the most dreadful experience of my life, but what matters to me most is that I am alive," said Bimal of Narayanpur.

But the tears begin to flow when Bimal recalls the awful noise when the bus skid and fell off a bridge. It could very well have been fatal for him. Bimal standing inside the overcrowded bus on his way to college at Athmalik when the incident occurred.

Ashok Pradhan lies on another hospital bed with injuries to the head and collarbone. His left hand is also broken at two places "God saved me so that I could share the rest of my life with my family - my wife, son and daughter," he said. The 37-year-old farmer from Kandhapada, who also worked on a daily wage basis at the water supply division office 12km away at Athmalik survived, while his office co-worker Kalandi Mahanadia. Who had been sitting in the seat behind him, died.

A series of screeching sounds and then the ill-fated bus veered off the road and shook violently before falling of the bridge into the dry bed of a nullah 50ft below barely seven km from Athmalik town around 9.10am on Friday.

"I had a feeling that the bus was turning upside down. Next there were shrieks and wailing all around me," said Murali Bhoi, a 25-year-old shopkeeper from Pitabaspur, 10km from Athamalik.

Bhoi, who suffered injuries that had rendered his waist and right leg immobile after the accident, said he didn't know how he came to hospital.

Most of the survivors who had been taken to the SCB hospital had recovered after treatment at the trauma care unit. Emergency officer Bhubananda Maharana said: "The condition of all the 23 survivors in the trauma ward has improved. The other four in the intensive care unit are under observation. One of them, who was in very critical condition, showed signs of improvement this morning."