Bodeli (Vadodara): Four children miraculously survived Wednesday's Gujarat bus accident in which 44 were killed. A 13-year-old survivor, Mamta Baria, was crying uncontrollably for several hours after the accident, lamenting that she had failed to save her friends. Though no fingers are yet pointing officially at the Gujarat Road State Transport Corporation, poor maintenance was clearly a culprit. The bus plying on the Waghbod-Bodeli route had run eight lakh kilometres and was due for retirement after 11 years of service. GSRTC managing director G R Aloriya claimed the axle broke because of the crash. The broken axle of the bus was fished out of the canal and sent for an examination. Sources in GSRTC said it was routine to deploy rickety buses in rural areas where passengers wouldn't complain. But GSRTC's divisional manager in Vadodara, S H Joshi, denied that the buses were poorly maintained and posed a fatal threat.