Boy loses foot while trying to board bus

A 14-year-old schoolboy lost his left foot when one of the wheels of the bus he was trying to board here on Monday crushed his foot when he fell off the bus.

Ullekh Puttaswamy, a class 9 student of Sadvidya High School here, who hails from Bannur town near Mysuru, was rushed to a private hospital where his foot was amputated.

In the light of allegations of negligence against the bus conductor and driver, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has ordered a departmental inquiry into the incident.

The boy’s parents have lodged a police complaint against the driver and conductor of the bus, holding them responsible for their son’s accident. If the driver and conductor had behaved responsibly by permitting him to enter the bus, he wouldn’t have lost his foothold, the parents contend.

The parents told KSRTC officials, who visited the boy at the private hospital here, that their son was “prevented” from boarding the bus for not holding a pass, which eventually caused the incident. This charge, however, has been refuted by KSRTC.

But KSRTC will bear the medical expenses, a divisional controller added.