• Bus overturns enroute Chamundi Hill; eight passengers, driver, conductor sustain minor injuries
• Bus steering locks, hits median and falls on to adjacent right-side lane
• Incident near Gaali Gopura junction View Point

Mysore/Mysuru: A newly deployed Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus of Kuvempunagar depot, met with an accident on Chamundi Hill Road in the city last evening. The eight passengers in the bus, had a providential escape with minor injuries, as the bus overturned, after falling to the adjacent right side lane of the road, disrupting the smooth flow of traffic for some time.

Bindu, aged 19-years and resident of Nayakara Beedhi atop the hill, who suffered injuries in the incident, was admitted to a private hospital, where she is recovering, it is said.

The incident occurred at around 4.30 pm, when the driver of the bus (KA 09 F 5584), lost control of the vehicle,  as the steering reportedly got locked. Unable to manoeuvre the vehicle, he hit the median  before the vehicle fell onto the other side of the road.

Driver’s version

According to bus driver Mallikarjuna Swamy, the bus had departed the depot at around 4 pm and no technical snag came to notice at that time. As the bus was moving through the View Point on the Chamundi Hill Road, the steering got locked and the vehicle started veering towards the right side. He tried his best to control the vehicle, but the vehicle ploughed through the median, falling from the height of five feet, into the other side of the road. The passengers were pulled out to safety and consoled, added Mallikarjuna Swamy, who was accompanied by conductor at the time of the incident.

It is also said that, the speed of the vehicle instantly reduced below 30-km, while negotiating the curve near Gaali Gopura junction and brushed past the median, before leading to the collapse of the median wall.

Ironically, the KSRTC crane summoned to lift the bus, turned into a squib, as the rope of the crane got cut and the bus fell down again. Fortunately, there were none beneath the bus or in the surroundings.

Newly purchased

The bus was added to the fleet of KSRTC just six months ago. The new buses boast of high end technology and the steering gets automatically locked, the moment the engine is turned off.  However, during the yesterday’s accident, the steering of the bus jammed, while the engine was on and vehicle was still on the move, casting aspersions about its technical features.

DCP (Crime and Traffic) K.S. Sundar Raj, ACP (Traffic) Shivashankar, Siddarthanagar Traffic Inspector Sridhar, KSRTC Divisional Controller (Urban) H.P. Veeresh, KSRTC Divisional Mechanical Engineer (DME) Jayakumar and Kuvempunagar Depot Manager Chetan Kumar visited the spot.