State transport bus falls into river kill 42

Mangalore Today News Network

Feb 22, 2016: Kamini Rathod, a BEd student of Narayan Lala College in Navsari, and a resident of Ukai in Tapi district, regularly travelled in the state transport bus with her friends who are also students of the same college.

On the afternoon of February 5, Kamini and her five classmates — including Dharmesh Vasawa, Neha Halpati and Jamna Valvi, all 22-years-old — were returning to Ukai. As usual, they were sitting two seats away from the driver. Before they knew it, the bus plunged into Purna river from the Gurukul bridge at Supa village of Navsari district.

The fateful bus was carrying 62 passengers against its 51-seat capacity, killing 42. Lucky to survive, Kamini says, “Some 15 minutes into the journey when the bus was going over the Gurukul Supa bridge in Navsari, we noticed the driver was trying to overtake a vehicle and felt something hit the bus which broke the railing of the bridge and fell into the river. I lost consciousness. It was a fall from some 50-feet, into the Purna river.

“When I regained my consciousness, I found myself on a hospital bed in Navsari with bandages on my head, legs and hands. Our college staff was there in the hospital. My head was aching a lot and the pain was unbearable. Later I learnt that Neha and Jamna were dead and Dharmesh is still under treatment.”

GSRTC regional officer Y J Saiyed said, “The bus comes to Navsari from Ukai after picking up passengers from Surat and Tapi districts and reaches Navsari in the morning. Each trip takes three hours and in the afternoon the same bus picks up passengers from Navsari depot and returns to Ukai, in the evening. The bus driver gets a three-hour rest in the depot.”

Saiyed added that the bus had done only six lakh kilometres so it was considered “fit” and only after completing eight lakh kilometres they are scrapped.

“To overcome such bus mishaps, we have started training camps for bus drivers in Navsari division depot, with the help of RTO, traffic police. Till now we have given three hours training to 864 bus drivers and still lot more to be covered in coming days,” said Saiyed.

Circle police inspector of Navasri Salim Shaikh said, “Primary investigations have indicated that when the driver was overtaking a vehicle, a bike came from the opposite direction. To avoid hitting the biker, the bus driver steered away and lost control. Forensic scientists also visited the spot and are investigating the cause. We are yet to get a fitness certificate from the state transport department, which we have sought.”