January 7, India — A young pregnant woman is dead and her husband in critical condition after their motorcycle collided head-on with a speeding Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS) bus near Astodia road in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The couple had been returning home after visiting their local ISKCON temple. Sunita Sharma, 21, was riding pillion with her husband Gaurishankar when the accident occurred.

“Due to the impact, Sunita was flung a few feet in the air before falling on the divider,” said a local police official. “She sustained severe injuries on the head, stomach and other body parts.”

28-year-old Gaurishankar, a medical representative working in a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical  company, also received multiple bodily injuries but survived. Now in severe shock at the local V.S. hospital, he has filed a criminal case against the driver of the bus, who fled the scene of the accident. Angry passers-by who tried to damage the bus at the scene will back him up.

Meanwhile, AMTS authorities have defended their position by attributing the cause of the accident to an oil spill. “It was a route number 22 bus going from Lal Darwaza,” said AMTS Chairman Pravin Patel. “Mr. Sharma lost his balance when he skidded on an oil spill outside a store, and rammed his motorbike into the rear of the bus.”