CHENNAI: Passengers travelling to Puducherry from Chennai by a State Transport Corporation bus on Tuesday were in for a rude shock as the driver, reportedly under the influence of alcohol, took them on a roller coaster ride.
Passengers told Express that the tipsy driver was rash all along the route.
Once the bus reached the East Coast Road, the driver reportedly lost control and brushed against the roadside trees before the passengers forced him to stop the bus near an entertainment park at Kanathur.
“When we asked him to alight from the bus, the inebriated driver was unable to stand straight or even pronounce his name correctly,” Dr J Kamaraj, a surgeon with Indira Gandhi Government GH and Post-Graduate Institute at Puducherry, who was a passenger in the bus, told Express.
“Initially, he told us it was ‘Punniyakodi’, and later changed it to ‘Ramamurthy’.”
The bus started from Chennai Muffosil Bus Terminus at Koyambedu around midnight for Puducherry, picking up commuters en route, before reaching Tiruvanmiyur.
According to the physician, he boarded the bus at Tiruvanmiyur and noticed that the driver could not hold the bus straight and was driving in a zigzag motion. “After I boarded the bus at 1.30 am, women passengers in the rear end started screaming. They were later joined by the men, who feared for their lives,” Kamaraj recalled the tense moments.
By that time, the bus had dangerously brushed past several trees, the driver having lost control of the vehicle.
“We thought enough is enough,” the doctor said. “We rushed to the driver and forced him to stop the bus after it crossed the tollgate.”
Some passengers told him that the driver was rash right from CMBT.
Ironically, the conductor of the bus did not have any contact number for making a formal complaint.
“Thereafter, all the commuters boarded another bus, which was already packed to capacity, and reached Puducherry at 5 am,” he added.