Lorry crushes bus conductor, hits six vehicles in pile-up

Deceased was standing outside bus stand when vehicle hurtled towards him

In a horrific serial accident, a container lorry crushed a KSRTC bus conductor under its front wheel, ripping apart his body, and injured a priest and a woman near the satellite bus station on Mysuru Road in western Bengaluru on Friday morning.

The lorry, driven by Shivakumar, 26, a resident of Dharmpuri, Tamil Nadu, came hurtling towards Ravichandra, 33, who was standing at the exit gate of the bus station around 6 am.

Ravichandra apparently couldn’t notice the lorry coming at breakneck speed. In no time, he was tossed up in the air, and collapsed only to be crushed under the front wheel of the lorry. His body was ripped apart, the police said.

The Mysuru-bound lorry which had started at the KR Market didn’t stop at that. It then hit three KSRTC buses, a BMTC Volvo bus, a car and a scooter before screeching to a halt near the Gali Anjaneya Temple. On the scooter were Shivananda Saraswathi, 48, a priest, and Bhagawathi, 43. Saraswathi broke a leg while Bhagawathi suffered head injuries.

The lorry driver, Shivakumar, then jumped out and started to flee but alert passersby chased him down and turned him over to the police. Shivakumar claimed that he couldn’t control the lorry as its brakes had given away but the police didn’t believe him. He could not explain why he was running away.

They arrested him and produced him before a court. The police said they had sought a report from the motor vehicle inspector to check the authenticity of his claim.

The deceased, Ravichandra, was a native of Kolar. Saraswathi and Bhagawathi were rushed to Pulse Hospital in Srinagar and are said to be out of danger, according to the police. The priest, who resides in Geetha Ashram at Bapujinagar, was returning to the ashram when the lorry struck his scooter.

DCP (traffic-west) S Girish and ACP (traffic-west) Jagadish G A rushed to the spot and supervised the vehicular movement. The accident did not affect the traffic on the busy road, the police insisted.