Rescue work under way near Ramanathapuram. (AFP)

Chennai, Nov. 26: The bus that plunged off a flooded culvert into the swirling river waters didn’t really skid: its driver panicked and jumped out of the window, leaving the vehicle to its fate.

The driver of the private bus, plying between Pattukottai and Aranthangi in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district yesterday, had just bent down for some reason when his vehicle swerved to the left on the culvert over the Maharajasamudram river.

Immediately, the passengers, already scared stiff at the sight of the swollen axnd overflowing river, cracked up. Terrified the bus would skid, they began to shout: “Hey, hey, hey!”

The driver panicked. The next minute, he jumped for his life through the window of the running bus, leaving it to crash though the culvert and down into the river, killing 52 people.

“The incident was uncalled for and should not have happened,” Thanjavur district superintendent of police Ashok Kumar Das said over phone today.

At least 30 other buses had safely gone over the same culvert yesterday, the SP added.

“It is only a small river and the water depth was not much,” he said. But the driver panicked when he heard people screaming and “suddenly jumped out, leaving the running vehicle on the culvert”.

Those sitting on the roof of the bus, which was pushed down by the flood waters, swam to safety but at least 52 people sitting inside died. Forty-one bodies were fished out yesterday and another 11 today.

Some bodies could have been washed further downstream, Das said. “But as of now, we have checked thoroughly.” Thirty-one others, who were admitted to the Pattukottai government hospital, are stable.

The toll in the other mishap near Ramanathapuram, where a Tiruchirapalli-Rameshwaram government bus was washed off a bridge, today went up to 29, with three more bodies being found.

“The search is still on and the toll may go up by another five or six,” a police source said over phone from Ramanathapuram.

Nearly 25 people were rescued by local villagers, the police and firemen yesterday, he added.

Chief minister Jayalalithaa has announced a solatium of Rs 50,000 to the families of the bus crash victims.

The chief minister today surveyed Cuddalore district, worst-hit by the floods, and assured people all possible help. At Maruvai village near Neyveli, distraught villagers ran towards her to tell their tale of woe.

Over 1,000 villages have been marooned in Cuddalore district and three lakh people evacuated.

“The devastation is enormous and people are totally helpless,” a source from Cuddalore said.