T.N. bus accident: News of friendly driver’s death yet to sink in for neighbours

“He was such a pleasant guy who always had a smile on his face,” say neighbours

Relatives of the accident victims grieve at the Government Hospital in Tiruppur on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

Gireesh, the driver of the KSRTC bus involved in the tragic accident near Coimbatore, last spoke to his wife Smitha before leaving Bangalore on Wednesday evening.

He was to turn up at his house at Panachikkadu in ward 12 of Vengola panchayat near Perumbavur by Thursday around 7 a.m. Instead, it was the news of his tragic death that reached his beloved wife Smitha and the only daughter Devika, a Plus Two student.

Gireesh, 44, was one of the victims of the accident that claimed over 20 lives.

“He used to ring up his wife before the start of the service and he has been operating on the Bangalore route for years,” said Soman, a relative and an immediate neighbour.

Gireesh had bought a five cent-plot and moved in with his family just about two years ago and had not lived enough of his life in that house, the fruit of his labour, when death put an abrupt end to it.

For Ajith Vengola, the fact that his long-time friend and neighbour at Panachikkadu in ward 12 of Vengola panchayat is no more is yet to sink in.

The news reached him a bit late in the day as he was preoccupied with other things in the morning and could not watch the news channels though his wife and ward member was alerted about the tragedy by then.

“He was such a pleasant guy who always had a smile on his face. I knew him for more than a decade even before he shifted to his new house some two years ago. He always wished me no matter where we met,” recollected Ajith, a retired tourism department employee and an author.

Gireesh used to be the driver of a tourist bus operating on the Bangalore route before he joined KSRTC about a decade back. No wonder, he used to be assigned the Bangalore route considering his thorough knowledge of it.

“He used to be our go-to man for all things related to travel. Since my daughter used to study in Karnataka, it was Gireesh who always helped me with the bus schedule,” Ajith recollected.