KANNUR: In a tragic start to the New Year, an 11-year-old girl lost her life after a school bus veered and overturned at Valakkai, on the Taliparambha-Sreekandapuram state highway, in Kannur on Wednesday. Nineteen other students, besides the driver and attendee, who were on board, escaped with minor injuries.
The deceased, Nedhya S Rajesh, daughter of Rajesh of Chorukkala, was a Class 5 student of Kurumathur Chinmaya Vidyalaya.
The accident took place near the Valakkai bridge around 4:30 pm, while the bus was en route to drop the 20 students from school. While navigating a descent, the driver lost control of the bus, which crashed into a side wall, before flipping multiple times and coming to rest on the Sreekantapuram-Taliparamba main road.
Nedhya, who was seated in the front, was thrown off the bus and crushed beneath the vehicle. The bus had to be lifted to remove her. She was rushed to the Taliparambha Cooperative Hospital, where she was declared dead. Her body was later shifted to the Kannur Government Medical College mortuary.
The injured students were admitted to the cooperative and Taliparamba taluk hospitals. Sreekandapuram police said they did not suffer serious injuries and their condition is stable.
“At present, 19 students, a helper and the bus driver are in hospital. No one has sustained serious injuries,” said a police officer.
Driver says bus lacked fitness certificate
Sreekandapuram Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Bibin Raveendran, who reached the spot, said brake failure and the driver’s inexperience might have caused the accident. “There are skid marks on the road. As the brakes failed while the bus was at high speed, the driver failed to control the vehicle on the descent,” he said.
Recounting the incident, Nizam, the bus driver, told reporters: “There was a steep bend on the descending road. The brakes failed at the top of the descent. I tried to slow down the vehicle as much as I could, but it veered off the road and overturned.
The doors were all closed. People at the hospital said one child was found under the vehicle. I don’t know how it happened. I have been driving the school bus for about four months and have never been involved in any accidents.”
Nizam said the school bus lacked a fitness certificate. “I had informed school authorities about the lack of proper brakes. However, they asked me to keep the vehicle running till the end of the academic year,” he said.