PALAKKAD, ERNAKULAM: Speeding. unauthorised lighting system. A doctored speed governor.
The private tourist bus carrying school students that rammed a KSRTC bus near Vadakkenchery on NH 544, resulting in nine deaths, on Wednesday midnight had flouted every rule in the book. That’s not all. Joemon, the driver of the private bus who was taken into custody, also ignored pleas from teachers and students to slow down.
“Our friends and sir (Vishnu V K) would have been alive had the driver slowed down,” said Binosh Blessen, a class 10 student of Baselios Vidyanikethan in Ernakulam’s Mulanthuruthy, one of the survivors. Forty-two students — 26 boys and 16 girls — and five teachers were on board the bus, going on an excursion to Ooty.
Binosh was sitting in the last row, watching a Malayalam movie on the TV inside with his friends Abel Philip Paul, Justin Thomas and others. Vishnu, their physical education teacher, was with them. Some others had dozed off.
“As the bus was going very fast, Vishnu sir went to the driver to tell him to slow down. A few seconds later, we hit the KSRTC bus,” said an inconsolable Binosh. Police said the bus was moving at 97.2km per hour, well above the speed limit of 80kmph on the stretch. Eyewitnesses said the tourist bus tried to overtake a car, but lost control and hit the Kottarakkara-Coimbatore superfast KSRTC bus.
Vishnu and five students died as the bus skid off the road and turned turtle. Three of 40 passengers of the KSRTC bus were also killed. “We could not understand what was happening. Everything was dark. It took us a moment to realise that we had been in an accident,” said Binosh, who got out after breaking the window glass.
Driver charged with causing death by negligence
Joemon, who was also injured, fled. He later turned up at the Vadakkenchery police station and said he required treatment. After getting preliminary aid from a Thrissur hospital, he absconded again. He was taken into custody from Sankaramangalam in Chavara near Kollam, while going to Thiruvananthapuram to meet a lawyer. Arun Kumar, the owner of the bus who allegedly helped Joemon escape, was also taken into custody.
Joemon was charged with causing death by negligence. Transport Minister Antony Raju blamed him for the tragedy. Sumesh, the KSRTC bus driver, said he had been driving at normal speed. “When the speeding bus hit us, I somehow managed to control the bus. My hands were shivering,” he said.
GOVT ACTS
S Sreejith, Transport Commissioner, said fitness certificate of the tourist bus will be cancelled and the licence of the driver suspended.
TIRED DRIVER
Some parents alleged Joemon, the driver, had just returned from a three-day trip and looked very tired. They said he even reached the school two hours late