Little did 20-year-old Tanuja know that she would be witnessing the most horrifying scene in her life when she came out of her house in Jyothinagar, Chandra Layout, to take her younger sister Namitha (8) inside, when the school van stopped in front of the house. 

Namitha, who smiled at Tanuja after she got down from the bus, also did not know that it would be the last smile of her life. Namitha was crushed under the rear wheel of the bus when she bent down to collect the lunch box which came out of Namitha’s bag, which her friend threw out of the window. Panic gripped the family as the tragedy unfolded. 

Namitha’s parents - Narendra Babu and Prameela and sisters - Tanuja and Swathi - were inconsolable when doctors declared her dead. Friends and relatives thronged the house to console them. The family members were not in a mood to speak to the Deccan Herald reporter who visited the house. 

This is not the first such accident in the City. On June 21, 2012, a four-year-old LKG student at a private school on Thanisandra Main Road was killed when the door of his school van hit him after he alighted from the vehicle near his house.

Mohammed Faizal had joined Bright Nursery School only a few days ago. While the driver was taking the vehicle in the reverse, the van’s door had rammed Faizal’s head.

Indiranagar witnessed a similar incident some years ago. Nine-year-old K Chandana was killed by her school bus, right in front of her house on 13th ‘B’ Main, 11th Cross.

 The driver, who was drunk, failed to notice Chandana moving in front of the vehicle and the vehicle hit her. 

Seven-year-old M C Manish was killed when his school bus ran over him on the premises of Outreach School at Wilson Garden on December 4, 2013.