New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) A 45-year-old woman died and 23 others were injured when an electric DTC bus they were travelling in rammed into a metro pillar in west Delhi on Monday morning, police said.
The accident happened near Shivaji Park Metro Station, they said, adding that Punjabi Bagh police station got a call regarding this at 7.42 am.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that a DTC electric bus, plying on the route between Mangolpuri and Anand Vihar Bus Terminal, had crashed with a metro pillar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vichitra Veer said.
As the bus driver suddenly applied brakes, an auto-rickshaw also collided with it from behind. Twenty-four passengers, including the driver and conductor, got injured in the accident, he said.
“A 45-year-old female passenger in the bus was declared dead at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, while another passenger, a 55-year-old man, is currently in the ICU,” he said.
An FIR under sections 281 (negligent driving) and 125A (endangering the life of others) and section 106 (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered in the matter, the police said.
The DCP said of the 23 injured, 13 are being treated at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, while the remaining 10 were taken to Acharya Bhikshu Hospital in Moti Nagar.
A Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) official claimed that “the bus was running in its designated lane”.
“A motorcyclist and an autorickshaw driver suddenly made a right turn. To avoid an accident, the bus driver (of the DTC electric bus) also took a right turn but it ultimately hit the metro pillar,” the official said. A senior police officer said that the statements of the bus driver and conductor have been recorded.
“We are also recording the statements of passengers for more clarity on how the accident took place,” the officer said.
The police teams will also check the footage of the CCTV inside the bus and nearby area to know about the sequence of events, the officer said.
The bus driver, in his statement, claimed that he lost control over the vehicle when all of sudden a motorcycle and an autorickshaw ahead of the bus took a sharp right turn, the police said.
The driver told police that he tried to stop the vehicle to avoid any collusion, they said.
A senior police officer said that teams have been formed to investigate the entire matter and efforts are on to get more details about the passengers. “So far we know that the woman who died in the accident was the sole bread-earner of her family. Her family members are in deep shock,” the officer said.
The police will also probe if the bus driver was over speeding or if there was any technical fault in the vehicle due to which it rammed with a metro pillar, the officer said. PTI BM SLB NB
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