Three days on, Vilas Kashinath Desai, 43-year-old bus conductor of the ill-fated Jaighad-Mumbai bus, is still to be traced. Relatives claim that he may be stuck inside the ST bus, and allege the agencies are delaying rescue operations.

Desai is a resident of Fungas village in Sangameshwar. He is married to Savita and has two son Raj (12) and Chiraj (2). “Usually on the route, the bus driver and conductor are changed at Chiplun. As usual, he boarded from Chiplun on Tuesday night at 10:30pm. On Wednesday morning, we found that an accident took place after which we tried his number but it was not reachable. We then approached the ST stand and got confirmation about his presence in the bus," said Sunil Desai, the younger brother of Vilas, who is waiting at the civil hospital at Mahad from Wednesday in the hope that his brother will be traced.