CHENNAI: A Class XII student travelling in footboard of a crowded MTC bus was killed as he banged on a gate pillar of a roadside building at Arcot Road in Vadapalani on Friday.
The jampacked bus (27C) was hardly 1 km away from his school - PCKG Government Higher Secondary School - and the CCTV footage shows the boy Subash running close behind the bus with one of his hands holding the window railing of the last seat.
“He and his friends were travelling in footboard and would get down at every bus stop. As the bus moved from Ram Theatre stop, he was running with a hand on to the bus and almost boarded the bus when he banged on the gate pillar. Along with him, two more boys also fell on road,” said the investigating officer.
Subash died on the spot. Passersby rushed two other boys - L Jeeva of Nethaji Nagar, Nerkundram and K Karthi of MMDA Colony, Arumbakkam - to a private hospital at Kodambakkam and they are undergoing treatment.
The bus had a closing door at the footboard. But it was not closed and about a dozen of school students were travelling on the footboard at the time of accident.
“I got a call from the school at around 9.30 am saying my son was injured in a road accident. After my wife and I reached here, they said he is dead,” said Srinivasan, while waiting at the mortuary of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Recalling his lost son he was telling people how Subash was soft-spoken and was always helpful to his mother.
Witnesses told the police that most of the school students were travelling in the foot-board and they were getting on and off the bus, every time it stopped, even at the traffic signals.
“Unlike others, Subash would never get in when the bus was above to move, but ran for a few meters behind the bus and then boarded the vehicle. Despite several warnings from the driver, the boys did not pay heed.
But the driver also did not close the automatic doors of the vehicle” said the police personnel quoting the conductor.
Subash is survived by his father Srinivasan, a driver, his mother, who works in a private firm and his younger sister.
A case was registered by the Pondi Bazaar Traffic Investigations Wing under section IPC 304 (A) (Causing death by negligence) and Parthiben, the bus driver, has been arrested.