BENGALURU: A 35-year-old woman pedestrian was knocked down by a speeding school van in front of her 13-year-old son at Nagawara on Friday evening. The police arrested a woman driver, who has been blamed for negligent driving. The deceased has been identified as Poornima, a homemaker and wife of Govindaraj. The accused Poonam Bahadur, a native of Nepal, was handed over to judicial custody.
A senior police officer said the incident occurred around 4.30pm when she was returning home after picking up her son Arun from his school.
Poonam was driving a Maruti Eeco school van towards KG Halli after dropping the students. She reportedly lost control over her vehicle due to heavy rain and crashed into a compound wall of a house before hitting Poornima, who was killed on the spot. However, her son Arun and a passerby Suneel Kumar alerted KG Halli traffic police, who arrived at the spot and arrested Poonam.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Poonam has been working as driver in Poornasmurthi school in Nagawara for six years and she used to routinely drop students home after classes. No student was inside the car when the incident took place. Poornima’s husband Govindaraj, who works as a bar cashier, was informed about the incident and the body was shifted to Ambedkar hospital for a postmortem examination.