BUS RUNS AMOK

BUS RUNS AMOK

Traffic was held up for three hours on the busy Magadi Road as a private bus collided with four vehicles, causing injuries to 15 persons

BANGALORE MIRROR BUREAU



There was high drama on Magadi Road when a runaway bus collided with four vehicles one after the other on Friday, causing injuries to 15 persons, including five school children. As a result of the freak accident, traffic on the arterial road was thrown out of gear for around three hours.
At the time of the accident, traffic was moving slowly on the main road as construction work on a flyover was going on at Sumanahalli junction.
The bus, belonging to the SRT group, had been hired by a marriage party from Chitradurga and was parked next to the Poojashree Convention Hall off the main road. The bus had ferried people from Chitradurga on Thursday evening and was to leave for Chitradurga to bring more people to the city.
PUSH BECAME A SHOVE
Recounting the incident, Ramaiah, who had come for the function, said, “The driver was unable to start the bus at around 9.30 am and requested us to push it. I and six others were pushing it when it went out of control. We jumped out of the way. We tried to put stones under the wheels but the bus was in neutral and kept moving. It came on to the main road, whereupon the driver steered it to the left but hit other vehicles.” Ramaiah added, “Before leaving Chitradurga, we had warned the driver a hundred times to drive carefully in the city. But he did not listen to us and this is what happened.”
Varadharaju, a tailor and resident of Sunkadakatte, was waiting for a bus in front of Andan restaurant when he saw the private bus ram the other vehicles. “I ran to the spot to help the victims,” he said.
Narrating the sequence of events, Varadharaju said, “I saw the private bus coming at high speed on the main road. People waiting for their bus jumped on to the footpath to save themselves. As the gradient was steep, the driver could not control the vehicle. The bus first rammed into the right side of a BMTC bus (248F from K R Market to Krishnarao Layout), injuring three men seriously. Then it hit a Santro car which turned turtle and slammed into a Maruti Swift. Still unable to control the bus, the driver rammed a bus of the Sri Vani Education Centre which veered right and hit a tree on the median. The runaway bus finally came to a halt after dashing another BMTC bus (route 243F/1 from Majestic to Giddakennahalli). Two persons on a two-wheeler that was in the path of the bus escaped by a hair’s breadth when they jumped off their vehicle.”
Those injured included three passengers on the BMTC bus, Shankar, Basavaraj and Ranganath, who sustained injuries to their legs; five Vani Education Centre students, Ashish (12), Sunith (14), Sujan (12), Suhas (8) and Parikshit (8); maths teacher G S Bhagya and the person in the Santro car. According to Vani principal Kathahini Bhat, Ashish was under observation for a head injury while Sunith suffered a fracture on his left hand.
Dr Prakash of Magadi Government Hospital, who was driving the Maruti Swift car, was unhurt in the incident. Shivakumar and Manjunath, who were riding the twowheeler, were lucky to escape unhurt. Members of the public helped in shifting the injured persons to nearby hospitals. The police cleared the traffic pile-up and had the damaged vehicles shifted with the help of a crane. Fearing the public’s wrath, the driver of the private bus fled from the scene. The Kamakshipalya traffic police are investigating the incident.