Alert driver averts mishap on KSRTC Volvo bus

The presence of mind shown by the driver helped ensure the safety of 40 passengers on board a Volvo bus of KSRTC, on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border on National Highway-7 at the Kodakonda checkpost in Bagepalli taluk of Chikkaballapur district on Saturday evening. The bus was on its way from Puttaparthi to Bangalore.

Anand, the driver, noticed smoke coming out of the engine, on the display of the dashboard. After parking the bus on the roadside, he checked the engine and found that the coolant had exhausted. He then told the passengers that the bus needed urgent repairs and asked them to alight, not giving room for panic.

The bus may have caught fire if the driver had not taken the necessary precaution, said a KSRTC staffer and the passengers.

Volvo/KSRTC reactions

The Volvo group of companies and the Managing Director of KSRTC have rubbished reports of fire in the multi-axle Volvo bus. The duo have termed it a minor incident, which was detected at an early stage, thus avoiding a major mishap.

S Sohanjit Randhawa, marketing head of Volvo, told Deccan Herald that it was a case of coolant temperature going up and the smoke was detected early. “This can happen to any vehicle or even cars. There is no fire. The matter has been blown out of proportion,” he said.

Randhawa, however, said that he was constantly in touch with officials of KSRTC and some of the officials of the company had also visited the place.

N Manjunath Prasad, managing director, KSRTC, told Deccan Herald that there was nothing serious about the incident as the driver of the bus found the computer fitted in the dashboard showing signs of engine temperature increasing manifold.

“He immediately checked the radiator and shifted the passengers to another bus coming behind, before intimating the local depot. No untoward incident has occurred,” he said.
He said the chief mechanical officer of KSRTC had been dispatched to the spot.

This is the fourth incident involving Volvo buses, in the recent past.

While there were casualties in two of these involving private buses, the other two were ‘minor incidents’ in KSRTC buses.