AGRA, May 23 -- A 45-year-old bus driver and a 60-year-old woman passenger were charred to death, while nearly 14 others sustained injuries after a private double-decker bus crashed into an overturned dumper truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. The truck had reportedly first hit the divider and overturned on the road, said police on Friday. The deceased were identified as bus driver Shambhu and Gayashree Sahu, both residents of Kanpur, said incharge of Matsena police station Vimlesh Tripathi, adding that the woman was seated in front row and could not escape. Their charred bodies were recovered later. The accident occurred around 2 am on Friday within the jurisdiction of the Matsena police station area in Firozabad. The sleeper bus, headed to Gurugram from Kanpur with over three dozen passengers onboard, rammed into the dumper that had turned upside down after hitting the divider, said Firozabad superintendent of police (City) Ravi Shankar Prasad. Most of the passengers were asleep when the mishap took place. "The dumper truck somehow lost control - possibly because the driver fell asleep - rammed into the divider and overturned on the expressway," the SP said. The driver of the private bus, which was travelling behind the dumper, had little time to react after spotting the overturned truck on the expressway. The sleeper coach crashed into the vehicle and caught fire, possibly after the engine ignited, with the flames quickly engulfing the entire bus, he added. Most passengers were asleep at the time and woke up in panic, scrambling to escape through any available exit, including the doors and windows of the burning bus, he said, adding that the bus driver was unable to escape from his seat and was charred to death in the fire. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot as the bus turned into a fireball, and it took several hours to douse the flames that had engulfed the entire vehicle. Most of the injured passengers were residents of Kanpur, Auraiya, Jalaun and Unnao. One of the passengers, who was taken to hospital, said that in the darkness of the night, no one could immediately understand what had happened. "There was smoke all around and the front portion of the bus was badly damaged. At first, I thought the bus had fallen into a roadside ditch, but then we heard people shouting at us to get out immediately without worrying about our luggage. They were probably farmers from nearby fields who had rushed to help us. Everyone scrambled out of the bus. Although the front exit door was damaged, the rapidly spreading fire forced us to escape as quickly as possible," the surviving passenger said. "The woman was seated in the front row and is believed to have been unable to escape in time. She was burnt to death after the fire spread. More than a dozen passengers were injured. All the injured are safe and have been admitted to hospitals in Firozabad and Shikohabad," incharge of Matsena police station Vimlesh Tripathi said. Matsena police station in-charge Vimlesh Tripathi said that the driver of the dumper truck, which overturned and came in the path of the sleeper coach, had fled from the spot before the police arrived. "A case may be registered against him after a complaint is received," Tripathi said. htc...