JOIN US In another twist to the tragic bus inferno accident, which claimed 45 passengers’ lives near Mahbubnagar of Andhra Pradesh ahead of Deepavali festival, Crime Investigation Department (CID) probe has revealed that the driver of the bus was doing overtime.
The CID probe in the Jabbar Travels Volvo bus accident is almost complete with the finding that the accident was the result of driver’s failure as he was doing double duty for the second day as the regular driver was sick. “Driver Feroz Khan had driven the same bus from Hyderabad to Bangalore on Tuesday night and was supposed to have been rested on Wednesday and commissioned on another Volvo bus on Thursday. However, he chose to drive on Wednesday too when offered double the wages,” said the Police.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh government has seized 195 buses, including 35 Volvo (four of Jabbar Travels alone) for violation of regulations, after rigorous highway inspections over the past week as a follow-up to the volvo bus fire which claimed 45 passengers’ lives.
RTA officials said, on Sunday they seized 42 buses across the state, including two Volvo, of Jabbar Travels at Maharashtra and Karnataka border checkposts, for not having permits and other violations. Among the violations were using a single permit to ply two or more buses on different routes. “This is done by putting the same number plate on different buses plying on different routes,” said RTA officials who participated in the statewide raids following the Jabbar Travels accident ahead of Deepavali festival near Mahbubnagar .
Police also seized a Volvo coming from Bangalore carrying crackers even as another Volvo of SRE travels met with an accident near Anantapur Sunday night, when it hit a culvert and its front wheels went flying in the air. However, there were no casualties as the bus was travelling at low speed.
National Crime Records Bureau statistics reveal that in the 1,329 road accidents in 2012, as many as 580 people were killed and in 2013, the death toll had already touched 610 so far.
Police refused to share the violations on the Volvo bus of Jabbar Travels which led to the accident saying it is sub judice. The driver, cleaner and one of the owners have been arrested and will face criminal charges, said police inspector P Venkateswarlu of Kothakota, where the case has been filed and will be tried in a local sessions court of Mahbubnagar.
The Private Bus Operators’ Association of AP met on Sunday and decided that a compensation of Rs 1 lakh will be paid by Jabbar Travels to the next of kin of the deceased in the Volvo accident. Association official Kesineni Srinivas said a corpus will be formed to meet such exigencies and to set up a training institute for night bus drivers. “We will send our drivers to Volvo Institute or any other government institute for long distance travel vehicles, he said.
Calling it a freak accident, he said “drivers are always told to stop driving if they feel sleepy and not to play with the lives of passengers.”
Yogesh Gowda, one of the five injured with 45-50 per cent burns undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals, is improving and started liquid diet in small quantities, said Dr Samiullah, hospital administrator. Remaining four patients are in stable condition.