Licence to kill?

It is 3 pm in the afternoon and an overloaded school bus takes a careless, speedy sharp turn near 19th Cross, HSR Layout, only to knock down a two-wheeler.  

The driver of the school bus had consumed alcohol and was speeding beyond control with 65 children on board while the capacity of the bus is 45.  
  
The presence of mind of the residents helped arrest the driver. The residents surrounded the bus, caught the driver and handed him over to the police, who in turn slapped a slew of cases against him. K Ravi Shankar, traffic inspector, Madivala Police Station who rushed to the spot, lost no time in investigating the matter. 

“The accused Anand has been arrested and we have booked the driver under IPC 297 for rash and negligent driving and IPC section 337 for causing injury due to rash driving. And we have also booked him under Motor Vehicles Act (MVA)185 for drunken driving, MVA191 for  carrying excess persons and MVA190 against headmaster of school, for allowing the vehicle to ply in an unsafe manner. Anand will be in our custody till August 6,” said Ravi.

He added, “The driver had consumed 200 ml of alcohol and was found in an inebriated state.” 

The representatives of the school management said that the accused Anand (who was driving the school van when the accident happened) is in fact the driver of the owner’s vehicle and has not been appointed as the driver of the school bus. 

Confirming this, Nagesh R, a representative of the school said, “Yes, he is the owner’s driver but we had asked him (Anand) to drop the children because the regular driver hadn’t come to work. We didn’t know that he had consumed alcohol.” 

The children on board said that the driver was indeed over speeding. “This is not our regular driver but someone who has come in place of him. There are also more children on this bus than usual. We did ask him to slow down but he didn’t seem to pay any attention,” said a student on the bus.

The sight of speeding school buses is not rare although a Supreme Court order issued in 2011 makes it mandatory for all educational institutions to fit its vehicles with speed governors. This school bus, involved in the accident, did not have a speed governor and was over speeding. 

Transport Commissioner Amar Narayana said, “We will investigate this particular accident and charge the school management and the driver.”

About how the transport department intends to deal with the issue, where the driver has been charged with multiple offences, Amar Narayana said, “In addition to booking the driver for drunken driving, over speeding and cancelling his driving licence, we also intend to revoke his licence permanently which means that he will never be able to get a licence to ride or drive.”  He added, “The driver could get a job as a conductor or an assistant to a driver but not drive a vehicle.”   

Eye witnesses couldn’t contain their anger when they said, “The driver should be put behind bars.”  Chandrappa, a resident said, “This is a residential locality but we have alway see school buses over speeding. But the traffic police turn a blind eye to this problem.” John, another eye witness, added, “The school bus was overcrowded and over speeding. The lives of so many children are at stake and nobody seems to bother.”