14-year-old run over by MTC bus

July 10, 2012 02:07 am | Updated November 17, 2021 04:02 am IST - CHENNAI:

Only a few weeks after the incident on Gemini flyover, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation Limited (MTC) has been involved in another accident.

This time, a 14-year-old boy was run over by a 129 C bus, at the Eden Gardens Road-Cooks Road junction near Otteri, on Monday morning.

According to police, Niranjan is the son of Velu Saravanan, a painter, and Yeshashri. The couple live in Narasimhapuram in Pulianthope. Niranjan is their youngest child and was studying in class IX in a school in Nammalwarpet.

On Monday morning, at around 9.20 a.m., he was on his way to school.

“When he was passing the junction, the MTC bus which plys between Perambur and Nanganallur hit his cycle from behind,” said Appadurai, traffic investigation officer, Kilpauk.

The back wheel of the bus ran over the boy and he died on the spot.

The body was sent for post-mortem and later handed over to the parents. However, the family of the victim have another version of the incident.

“They claim that his cycle chain slipped off and when he was putting the chain back in place, the accident happened,” a police source said.

Officials at the Perambur bus depot said that the driver has only two years of experience.

MTC officials said the driver would be suspended. “The report given to us was that the boy suddenly came out from a street at the junction. The driver could not control the vehicle and ran over the school boy,” an official said.

However, officials said that this was not an excuse for letting the driver go free.

“The drivers have been told to go slow at junctions or at places where there are many lanes. This is because vehicles or people can come from any direction,” the official said.

Experts say that there is a need to educate school children in traffic rules.

“Three things are essential for safe road travel – engineering, enforcement and education. Engineering involves laying good roads, having proper traffic signals and signs, enforcement should be done by the police and transport officials. Traffic education is lacking in our country. It is high time the education department thought about it,” he said.

The bus driver Raja was arrested and charged under IPC sections 304 (A), ‘death due to negligence’, and 279, ‘rash and negligent driving’. He was later released on bail.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, a 17-year-old youngster who was travelling on the footboard was run over when he tried to get down from a moving bus in Kilpauk.

According to police, Praveen Kumar (17) tried to get down from the front entrance of the bus. He lost balance upon getting down and fell under the back wheel.

“We will be suspending the driver in this case too,” an official said.

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