Mumbai:

Investigations have revealed that the driver of the bus crash in Maharashtra’s Kurla in which seven people were killed and several others injured, was not under the influence of liquor.

Driver Sanjay Dutta More whose blood sample was sent for testing to check the presence of alcohol was found negative.

Further investigations were on.

The police are primarily considering it an intentional incident, but why the driver did this has yet to be known.

On Saturday, the police recorded statements from people from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) administration.

Statements of 40 people have been recorded and an investigation was being held on its basis, the police said.

On December 9, the BEST bus mowed down 49 people, killing seven, and crashed into over 30 vehicles.

The incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. in the crowded Kurla West market when More sped the bus and rammed into at least 25 vehicles spreading havoc in the area.

A magistrate court in Kurla has sent the bus driver to police custody till December 21.

According to the BEST, the driver had lost control of the 12-metre-long electric bus.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim’s family and full medical treatment expenses of all the injured in the tragedy, while Deputy CM Ajit Pawar assured that the matter would be thoroughly probed and the guilty shall be punished.

The BEST announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim’s family and set up a probe committee headed by Chief Manager Ramesh Madavi.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Aditya Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) Working President Supriya Sule, Congress Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan and other Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders demanded a complete enquiry into the tragedy and the most stringent action against the culprits.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

A 25-year-old man was killed when a state-run electric bus hit him in Mumbai last night, officials said. The accident took place when the bus, hired by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking on a wet-lease basis, hit the victim, Dikshit Vinod Rajput, while he was riding his two-wheeler.

The bus was moving to the Kurla bus station from Shivaji Nagar.

“While the bus arrived at the location, a two-wheeler rider came in contact with the right side rear tyre of the bus and sustained a head injury,” officials said.

The victim was rushed to hospital but was declared dead.

The 39-year-old driver, Vinod Aabaji Rankhambe, and the bus conductor, Avinash Vikramrao Gite, have been arrested.

2nd BEST Bus Accident In Mumbai This Week

The incident comes days after seven people died when another electric bus, hired by the BEST, hit several vehicles before coming to a halt inside a housing society.

More than 40 people, including several policemen, also sustained injuries in the accident that took place Monday night.

The driver, Sanjay More, is now in police custody.

During interrogation, More said he had no experience in driving electric vehicles and underwent only a 1-day training for steering EVs, police sources said.

More, who is said to have a lot of experience driving non-EV buses, told the police that he had only driven the electric vehicle three times during the training.

According to BEST’s standard operating procedure, a driver who is going to drive an e-bus manually needs to undergo training for six weeks.

More also said the bus went out of control as he was unable to understand what he was doing, police sources said. The investigation has revealed that at the time of the accident, the bus was moving at a speed of more than 60 kmph.

According to reports, more than 106 accidents involving BEST buses have so far taken place this year.

Mumbai:

A bus driver in Mumbai lost control of the electric bus operated by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and rammed into pedestrians and vehicles on Monday, killing seven people and injuring 42 others. More than 20 vehicles were also damaged in the crash, which took place in Kurla and was captured on CCTV.

The bus driver, Sanjay More, has been arrested for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to police custody till December 21.

During interrogation, More said he had no experience in driving electric vehicles and underwent only a 1-day training for steering EVs, police sources said. More, who is said to have a lot of experience in driving non-EV buses, told the police that he had only driven the electric vehicle three times during the training.

According to BEST’s standard operating procedure, a driver who is going to drive an e-bus manually needs to undergo training for six weeks.

More also said the bus went out of control as he was unable to understand what he was doing, police sources said. The investigation has revealed that at the time of the accident, the bus was moving at a speed of more than 60 kmph.

Bus Driver’s Family, Colleagues To Be Questioned

The police have so far recorded the statements of 25 people, including the bus conductor, in the Kurla crash case. 

They will now question More’s family and colleagues to find out whether he had any dispute or argument with anyone.

The bus – which officials say had been in service for just three months – will also be checked for technical faults. 

The Olectra bus is registered under the name of a company called EVEY Trans and has been taken on a wet lease by the BEST. An official said the drivers of such buses are supplied by the private operators.

According to an eyewitness, the bus swerved over a stretch of 200 metres before the deadly crash. 

Mumbai:

A quick intervention by police and a local lawyer saved the life of a BEST bus driver who was assaulted by an angry mob after the electric vehicle driven by him ran amok and killed seven people on a busy road in Kurla on Monday night.

Ashif Hussain, 30, a resident of the area near the accident site on S.G. Barve Road, was among the first to respond.

“I was at home when I heard a loud noise. I rushed outside and saw two policemen lying injured in a police vehicle,” Hussain told PTI on Tuesday.

Hussain opened the door of the damaged vehicle and rushed the injured cops to a nearby hospital. Upon returning, he, along with friends, rescued three others trapped under the police SUV.

Hussain said he noticed a mob attacking the bus driver.

“I intervened, pleading with people to stop hitting the driver. I took a few blows in the process, but with the help of the police, we managed to get the driver to safety,” he said.

He said the bus conductor hid himself in a nearby dentist’s clinic to escape the mob’s fury. Hussain provided him with new clothes and escorted him on a motorbike to the Kurla police station.

“The mob was furious. Had we not arrived in time, and had local residents not helped us, the driver and conductor would not have been spared by the angry people,” a senior police official said.

The driver, Sanjay More (54) was later arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other provisions under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.

The e-bus, operated by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, rammed into pedestrians and vehicles at around 9.30 pm on Monday in Kurla (West), leaving behind a trail of death and destruction on the congested street.

According to police, More lacked the experience of driving EVs. He had undergone only a ten-day training for driving electric buses, police said.

Police on Tuesday told a court that they need to probe if More had committed the act “deliberately” and used the vehicle as a “weapon”. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

The driver in Monday’s horrific bus accident in Mumbai rammed 50-60 vehicles and kept going for 300 metres after hitting the first vehicle, the police have told a court in the city. 

Seeking police custody of the driver – Sanjay More, 54 – on Tuesday, the investigating officer in the case also said he was aware that he was in a crowded area, and the police want to probe whether he had a motive behind driving the bus recklessly. The bus, which had passengers on board, had come to a halt after hitting the gates of an apartment complex.

The accident, which took place near the Kurla (West) market around 9.45 pm on Monday, had killed seven people. More was arrested and charged with culpable homicide.

Making the Mumbai Police’s case for custody, its lawyer told the Kurla Court that the police are also investigating whether there was a conspiracy behind the incident and whether the driver had used the bus as a weapon. “We also want to check if he was under the influence of alcohol at the time,” the lawyer said. 

The lawyer appearing for More, however, said the police did not need his custody and all the information could be gathered from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), which operates the bus. 

The BEST administration, he said, can answer whether More was adequately trained and whether his medical report proved that he was drunk at the time of the accident.

After hearing both sides, the court sent the driver to police custody till December 21. 

Apart from the six people that were killed, at least 49 people were injured in the accident. A doctor had said the injured included at least four police personnel. 

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced Rs 5 lakh financial assistance for the families of the victims and said BEST will take care of the treatment of those injured.

The bus involved in the accident is registered in the name of a company called EVEY Trans and was taken on a wet lease by the BEST. Officials said that the drivers of such buses are also supplied by the operators. 

Police sources had told NDTV that the driver of this particular electric bus, which was being operated on Route 332 from Kurla Railway Station (West) to Agarkar Chowk in Andheri East, did not have much experience driving heavy vehicles.

Mumbai:

Among those mowed down by a killer bus in Mumbai’s Kurla last night was a 19-year-old, who was returning home after her first day in office. Afrin Shah started her first job yesterday. On her way back, she did not find a rickshaw and called her father Abdul Salim. Mr Salim asked her to walk to Kurla station. Shortly after, Mr Salim got another phone call, asking him to rush to the hospital. There, he found Afrin’s body.

While Afrin was returning from work, 55-year-old nurse Kannis Ansari was on her way to a hospital for the night shift when the chilling accident struck. She reached another hospital, dead. 

Six people died and 43 others were injured when a BEST bus lost control on the crowded SG Barve Marg and hit pedestrians and vehicles. Besides Afrin and Kannis, the other victims include Anam Sheikh, Shivam Kashyap, Vijay Gaikwad and Faruq Chaudhari.

The bus eventually entered a residential society and came to a halt. Experts have inspected the vehicle and their report would confirm if a mechanical fault, such as brake failure, led to the crash.

BEST or Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, has said that initial information suggests that the driver “lost control of the bus”. The driver, Sanjay More, has been taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, police have said.

The SG Barve Road, named after the prominent Congress leader, is one of the busiest routes connecting to Kurla station. Scores of passengers take the route daily to board trains or buses to their workplaces in different areas of the Maximum City. The timing of the accident, during which many people were heading home after a long day, compounded the casualties.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis has expressed his condolences and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the victims’ families. He has also that the authorities will pay for the treatment of those injured in the killer crash.