Blog@GraceJunction

16 april, 2008

6.10 am, Bodeli, Gujarat. A state transport bus carrying approximately 50 people is travelling towards Dabhoi. Out of the total passengers about 45 are school children going to give their final exam.

6.15 am, the bus reaches the Narmada Canal overbridge and tries to overtake a truck that is already almost there on the bridge and so he speeds up. 

6.15 am, Right front wheel of the bus hits the foot-path on the bridge at great speed, snapping a thick metal rod connecting the two front wheels and the steering wheel. The wheels froze at the angle at which it hit the foot path. With the connection between the wheels and the steering rod snapped, the driver had no control over the bus anymore. He was not a driver anymore, just a mere spectator, albeit for a few seconds more! The bus jumped the foot path, burst through the concerete railings and plunged 60 feet into the canal. (more…)

The TOI today is flooded with the news of a DPS school bus that overturned yesterday on it way to school. Little Akul Rathod, a really cute 9 year old student of standard IV, was killed in this freak accident, and he had no scope of survival because, his head got trapped between the bus and the road divider and his skull got crushed.

It pains me to even write about it, and I cannot even imagine the deep scar this event will cause in the mind of his parents. And this wound will never heal. They will have to nurse it as long as they live.

Ashok Patel, the driver of the ill-fated bus was overspeeding it seems. He jumped a divider and rushed past a truck to beat him to the junction. He overtook from the right when he actually needed to turn to the left! The trucker was not very happy it seems. He gave a slight nudge to our ‘Ayrton Senna’ before he speeded away to his destination, leaving the school bus to a cruel destiny. The bus it seems, turned turtle twice and in the process threw Akul out of the window pane, only to crush him later. (more…)