Five Infosys careers killed at birth

The local police,who arrived within 15 minutes of the accident,said the bus had evidently been speeding.

The Karnataka police identified the dead as Ankita Vedprakash Arya of Delhi,Agnivesh Atidardhi of Bihar,and Kush Mishra,Tushar Agrawal and Rachit Mehrotra,all of Uttar Pradesh.

All five were in their early twenties. In all,there were 45 people in the bus,the driver and the cleaner of the bus apart from the 43 of Infosys. Both KSRTC employees escaped with minor injuries; they too were taken to the hospital in Belgaum.

Infosys,however,did not confirm the names of the dead. “It was a new batch of employees who had finished their training at Mysore and were heading to join work at the Pune centre,” said an Infosys spokesperson from Bangalore. The team was to join work at company’s campus at Hinjewadi.

“The accident occurred when the driver of the bus,KA 01-F8438,lost control while crossing a sharp curve. The bus was at high speed and hit a divider. This is an accident-prone curve. There is no warning signal or board to display the curve of the road. This increases the difficulty of driving,especially at night and early morning,” said SR Kulkarni,divisional traffic officer,KSRTC,based at Nipani.

“Two buses from Pune were sent by Infosys early in the afternoon to ferry those who were not injured and they were taken to Pune,” Kulkarni said. Some of the injured were taken to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital at Nipani and others to KLE Hospital at Belgaum.

“Twenty youngsters were admitted to our hospital in the morning. Of them,one died and one is seriously injured. All the injured were later sent to KLE Hospital in Belgaum,” said a spokesperson for Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.

“The five bodies are at the post-mortem room at Sankeshwar. The injured have been sent to KLE Hospital at Belgaum,” said Venugopal,Circle Inspector of Sankeshwar division. KLE Hospital authorities said they were not in a position to share details on the injured.

An Infosys senior manager went to the accident spot and later said,“We will take care of our employees.”

In a statement released in Bangalore,the company said: “We are saddened by an unfortunate road accident involving our employees which has occurred early this morning at Nipani near Belgaum. It is with regret we state that five of our employees have been confirmed dead. Those who are injured have been hospitalised and reported to be in stable condition. Our sympathies and prayers are with the family of the deceased.”