Driverless bus rams into stall, 3 die

When the 85-number bus, on its way to Chunabhatti, came near the Oval Maidan at 8:35 am, the driver8217;s door suddenly flew open. A BEST spokesperson said Mansoor clutched the door with one hand and tried to control the bus with the other. Unable to do both tasks at the same time, he fell on to the road.But the driverless bus rolled on furiously and crashed into the railing of the footpath. The two youths were sitting on the pavement arranging books at their stall under a canopy, and they didn8217;t see the bus coming in.

The only surviving member at the Sai book stall, Ashraf Khan 23, was collecting books from the storage box at that moment. 8220;I could only watch helplessly as the bus mowed down my mates like a wild animal,8221; he said.The bus dragged Rajesh nearly five feet before its wheels ran over his head. Meanwhile, Mohammed Shah clung on to its bumper before he was crushed against the fence of Oval Maidan. When the fence broke down, Shah too went down with it under the wheels. The frenzy ended after the bus stopped a few feet inside the maidan.

Another eyewitness B Ganguly, who mans another stall on the same footpath, claimed the driver was inside the bus when the incident took place. 8220;Rajesh had been at the stall for just five months, but he had managed to send some money home,8221; said Ganguly, bewailing the loss of the breadwinner of a five-member family.

According to a BEST official, 8220;There were only seven or eight passengers in the bus, who got out and went in search of another bus.8221;

8220;Our welfare staff reached the spot by 9 am and rushed Mansoor to St George Hospital,8221; the BEST spokesperson said. The driver succumbed to his injuries around 12 noon. According to the BEST, Mansoor was an experienced hand behind the wheel. 8220;He had a clean record. Not one accident in 23 years of driving our buses,8221; the spokesperson claimed.

BEST has announced a compensation of Rs one lakh for Mansoor on the grounds of death on duty. Other monetary help for the driver and the deceased pavement-dwellers will be decided by the BEST8217;s accident claims department. The hawkers on the road observed a bandh today as a mark of respect for Shah and Rajesh.