PM [1]
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Chilling visuals emerged showing rash driving by a BEST bus driver, moments before he crashed the vehicle into pedestrians and vehicles on Monday in Mumbai's Kurla, killing seven people and injuring 42 others.
Cameras inside the bus showed passengers struggling to maintain balance by tightly holding poles and grabbing handles, while others rose from their seats to fathom what was happening on the streets as the bus moved forward. The bus then came to a halt and people jumped out of the emergency exit. The last to leave was bus driver Sanjay More, who picked two backpacks before jumping out of the bus.
Meanwhile, visuals from the street show the bus mowing down pedestrians, followed by people cornering the bus driver.
CCTV footage from inside the bus suggested "the entire horror unfolded within a span of 52 to 55 seconds," an official told PTI. The e-bus covered a distance of 400 to 450 meters since it dashed the first vehicle and finally crashed into the compound wall of a housing society on S G Barve Road while heading to Sakinaka from Kurla station, the RTO officials said.
A quick intervention by police and a local lawyer saved More's life, who was assaulted by an angry mob. Ashif Hussain, 30, a resident of the area near the accident site on SG Barve Road, said he intervened and urged people to not assault the driver. "I took a few blows in the process, but with the help of the police, we managed to get the driver to safety," he told PTI. He said the bus conductor hid himself in a nearby dentist's clinic to escape the mob's fury.
More, later arrested and booked for culpable homicide, told Mumbai Police during interrogation that before taking the e-bus on road, he was drove the bus thrice during training rounds by the contractor in a single day. The BEST standard operating procedure requires a driver to undergo refresher training for six weeks.
According to police sources, accused Sanjay More has a lot of experience in driving a bus, but he did not have experience in driving an e-bus, which is automatic.
Meanwhile, Mumbai RTO officials had said they suspect "human error" and "lack of proper training" led to the accident, even as an investigation team found that brakes of the Olectra-make electric bus were operating well.
On Thursday, two lawyers have approached Maharashtra's State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) for an "impartial" inquiry into the accident, claiming that drivers of the civic-run transport body are overworked.