Jammu, April 21 -- Survivors of the deadly Udhampur bus tragedy recalled scenes of sheer panic and desperate cries for help, crediting the army's swift and heroic rescue with saving numerous lives. Death stared him right in the face, said 29-year-old Rakesh Kumar, who was sitting next to the driver as the bus slipped off the road and fell down the slope. A pharmacist, posted at Government Medical College, Jammu, Kumar had left his village-Nimbala-at around 8.30 am, boarding a bus from Ramnagar Market, unaware that it would soon plunge intochaos. At least 21 people were killed and 50 injured on Monday when an overloaded private passenger bus plunged nearly 100 feet down a hillside, hitting an autorickshaw before landing upside down on the road below, in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Monday, said officials. "I was sitting next to the driver. The bus was overspeeding... it was too fast," he said, horror still visible in his eyes. Then moments later, thebus swerved. "I saw the driver trying to hit the breaks, but nothing. Within no time, the bus was going down the slope. Death stared right in my face. I thought that is it..," "Amid shrieks and screams, I sat there looking. After the bus came to a standstill, I realised that the front windshield (mirror) had fallen on me. I removed it with my hands," he said, adding that the accident could have been avoided had the driver been driving responsibly. He recalled that an army convoy passing along the winding hilly stretch rushed to the spot."They immediately started taking the victims out of the ill-fated bus that had become a mangled heap of iron," he said. God and blessings of my parents saved me today, said Rakesh. The mishap, officials say, occurred after the driver lost control while negotiating a sharp blind curve near the hilltop Kagort village in the Ramnagar area around 10 am. For 19-year-old Sushil Sharma, of Jallow village, the day had began just as routinely. Headed to Government Degree College at Udhampur, where he studies BA (honours), when barely half km into the journey the tragedy struck. "A tyre burst and the bus gets out of control. The driver was unable to control the bus," recalls Sushil from a hospital bed in Udhampur. "I was sitting on the rear side of the bus close to the door. There was total chaos.the bus toppled like a toy down the slope. It hit an auto-rickshaw on a lower road which turned turtle," he says. Luckily, Sushil survived with minor bruises and concussion. Rattan Chand, 50, who was travelling with his wife Savitiri Devi, son, and sister said that he was taking his wife to a doctor at Udhampur as she had to undergo a procedure for kidney stones. Instead, they were thrown into a nightmare. "We were sitting in the bus when there was a sudden sound, probably of a tyre burst... My wife Savitiri Devi and sister Kanto Devi are seriously injured and are being treated. I don't know what exactly happened but whatever happened was nothing short of a nightmare," he says. "Army personnel were the first to reach us, appearing like messiahs amid the chaos and confusion. They pulled us out of the wreckage. I had a miraculous escape," said Neetu Rani, 32, of Dehari village. Still shaken, she recalled the terrifying moments after the crash, saying there were cries for help all around as injured passengers lay trapped inside the mangled bus before rescuers arrived swiftly and began evacuating them. Rani said that she was visiting her mother's house in Udhampur, a visit that turned into a nightmare due to a "reckless driver". Expressing grief over the mishap, transport minister Satish Sharma said the road where the accident occurred was never made by "any technical team" and that "locals contributed for it". On a visit to Udhampur hospital to meet the injured, Sharma said, "While administration is taking care of injured and all medical facilities are being extended, a serious and thorough probe will be conducted into the accident. Because of one man, we have lost so many lives." "For now he is absconding but this time we will set an example. That curve where the accident occurred has been visited by our team. I have also heard that the road was not made by technical team but by the locals who contributed (money)," he said. Meanwhile, local BJP MLA RS Pathania clarified that the road that was made around 70 years ago by the locals has not been technically standardised and certified by the department concerned. The transport minister also said ensured authorities will look into the all the aspects like why it was overloaded and was the driver a habitual offender. "Everything will be probed in detail and the driver will be handed a strict punishment that would act as an example this time," he said. Satish Sharma said that the administration also needed to work strictly. "The road is not suitable but I have come to know that Volvo service is being plied on it. It will be dealt with sternly."...