COIMBATORE: A driver and conductor of the TNSTC Coimbatore were suspended on Wednesday, after a 9-month-old fell from a running bus on Monday in Salem.
Sources said T Rajadurai (31), from Karungalur in Dharmapuri district, who works as a mason at a construction company in Coimbatore, had recently visited his hometown. He was heading back to Coimbatore with his wife and two children, one aged seven and the nine-month-old, on a government bus operated from Salem to Coimbatore, on Monday night.
Around 10.15 pm, while on Valaiyakaranur flyover on Salem-Coimbatore NH, the driver, A Sivanmani suddenly applied brakes, causing the infant to slip from Rajadurai’s lap and fall onto the road, through the open door. The infant died on the way to the hospital. Subsequently, Rajadurai filed a complaint with the Thevur police station, stating that the conductor and driver had failed to close the door, sources added.
Following this, TNSTC Coimbatore warned that drivers and conductors would face departmental action if they operated buses without closing doors. Police in Salem registered cases against the driver and conductor on Tuesday. The Managing Director of TNSTC suspended the driver and conductor K Palanisamy of Coimbatore for alleged negligence.
In another incident, TNSTC driver Arulmoorthy from Virudhunagar district, allegedly started operating a bus from Pollachi bus stand to Sivakasi with 40 passengers on Wednesday afternoon in an inebriated state. After the driver allegedly drove the bus for a few kilometres, passengers stopped him on Udumalai road.
The driver then dozed off in the bus. Gomangalam police secured him. The passengers were taken in another bus. After a video of the incident went viral, TNSTC Madurai region suspended the driver.