Girl, 16, riding triples on bike run over by school bus in Bengaluru

The father of the deceased is an autorickshaw driver while the mother is a homemaker

A 16-year-old girl died after being run over by a school bus in southern Bengaluru’s Banashankari on Thursday morning, police said.

The deceased, Keerthana, a resident of Harohalli, was riding a two-wheeler with two other teenagers — Harshitha and Darshan — when the accident occurred around 9.20 am, according to police.

Harshitha is Keerthana’s elder sister.

The bus (KA 51/B 3877) drove up from the flyover “in a reckless and negligent manner” and rear-ended the scooter near the Deve Gowda Petro Bunk along the Outer Ring Road. The crash threw all three off the two-wheeler.

While Harshitha and Darshan fell to the roadside, Keerthana was thrown in the middle of the road and came under the bus. The bus driver got off the wheel and ran for his life. Police have taken up a case against him but he’s yet to be traced.

For now, police have confirmed only Keerthana’s age, but said Harshitha and Darshan were also underage. Darshan rode the two-wheeler while Harshitha and Keerthan sat on the pillion. It is evident that he didn’t have a driving licence. Nobody wore a helmet, police added.

The bus was being used to ferry the students of Delhi Public School-Bengaluru South. School authorities said they had outsourced the transport operations to Royal Tourist, a private agency located in Shankarapuram.

Mansoor Ali Khan, treasurer, KK Educational and Charitable Trust, which runs the DPS schools in Bengaluru and Mysuru, called the incident unfortunate and said the police were investigating it.

Deepak R, the proprietor of Royal Tourist, said no schoolchildren were on the bus at the time of the accident.

Asked about the driver, he said he would comment only after speaking to the police inspector and getting the facts of the case.

On whether the driver was speeding, Deepak said every school bus was fitted with a speed governor that limited its top speed to 60 kmph.

Keerthana had scored 70% marks in the SSLC exam and was looking to enrol in PUC.

The sisters’ father is an autorickshaw driver while the mother is a homemaker. Keerthana had taken up a job at a store in Nayandahalli to support the family. Harshitha, too, was working to support the family. They travelled to work by the scooter.

On Thursday, Darshan, a friend, joined them. Keerthana sat at the end. Together, they set out from Harohalli to Nayandahalli and reached the Outer Ring Road via the service road at Rani Channamma Circle.

At that precise moment, the school bus drove down the flyover and struck the scooter, according to police.