In a shocking incident, one of the wheels of a school van, which is said to have passed stringent verification for fitness certificate on Tuesday, came off, risking the lives of around 20 students at Chatrapatti on Wednesday.
Though none of the students of the villages around Chatrapatti was injured, the police said that it was a providential escape for them.
The driver, K. Prabhu (26) of Thathaneri, however, managed to bring the vehicle proceeding towards the school in Simakkal, to a halt as soon as he heard an unusual noise from the vehicle.
Chatrapatti police have booked the driver for rash and negligent driving.
The police said that the vehicle had the fitness certificate issued by the Regional Transport Office, South, on Tuesday.
An official in the RTO said that a district-level inter-disciplinary committee had inspected various safety parameters of the vehicle before the FC was given.
The committee members include the officials from the district administration, city police, Department of Education and Department of Transport.
Police sources said that the left rear wheel had come off after the bolts were found to be loose. It was not known how the bolts got loose since the vehicle was supposed to have been subjected to stringent check by the authorities concerned less than 24 hours back.
The driver was supposed to make mandatory check of some important parameters every morning before starting the vehicle, the police said.
An official in the RTO said the claim of the vehicle having undergone verification for fitness certificate on Tuesday could be ascertained only after going through the records.
He, however, said that the wheel could have been separated following a mechanical fault.
Police say the school vehicle had passed tests for fitness certificate only the previous day
