RTI reply reveals 591 accidents caused by CTU buses in 5 years

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A TOTAL of 591 road accidents have been reported in which 49 people, including pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheeler riders, etc., were killed. The accidents were caused by hundreds of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses in the last five years, revealed an RTI reply. In 510 of the 591 cases, all non-fatal, bus drivers and opposite parties arrived at an understanding. All the 591 accidents were reported to police. A total of 154 road accidents, including nine fatal out of 583 mishaps, were reported in 2016. “Nine fatal road accidents out of 49, reported between 2012 and 2016, were caused by long-route buses of CTU belonging to depot number-1. Five people out of nine were killed in other states, including Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh,” figures supplied in the reply revealed.

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In Chandigarh, there are four CTU depots and buses belonging to depots 1 and 3 run on long-distance routes. The CTU bus, which killed 22-year-old Paras on Tuesday night, belonged to depot 1.

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A detailed and categorised reply of CTU authorities showed that in 441 road accidents out of 583, buses belonged to depot 4 that plied on local routes in Chandigarh. The RTI query was filed seeking information about the involvement of CTU buses in fatal and non-fatal road accidents between 2012 and 2016.

A senior CTU official said, “Indeed, the graph of road accidents involving CTU buses increased each passing year.

Ironically, statistics show a dip in the graph of fatalities in the last few years. Departmental probes are being conducted against 35 drivers for causing road accidents, including fatal ones.”