The private bus on route 3C/1 from which Class X student Rishab Saha fell down and broke his leg in south Kolkata’s Kasba on Tuesday has as many as 447 traffic violation cases against it, police said.
The driver is a “repeat offender”, an officer said. The driver and the conductor of the bus were arrested on Wednesday morning after a case was initiated against them, an officer said.
“The majority of the cases against the bus are for violating traffic signals and switching flanks,” said an officer of Kolkata police’s traffic department.
On Tuesday, Rishab Saha, 15, a resident of Baroda Sarani in Haridevpur, was seen getting off the bus near his school in Kasba while it was still moving, the police said.
“CCTV footage shows the bus was moving when the boy was trying to alight from it,” the officer said.
Rishab’s father Mahadev Saha said his son told him that the conductor of the bus had asked the boy to get off while it was still in motion.
The student apparently slipped and lost grip on the handlebar of the bus and fell on the road, said an officer of the traffic department. He suffered a fracture in his left tibia and a deep wound in his left heel.
“My son is better today. We have been told he would be shifted from the ICU to the general ward today,” Mahadev Saha said, minutes after visiting his son at Ruby General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
The boy underwent surgery on Tuesday afternoon to fix the fracture.
The driver and the conductor of the bus, who have been arrested, have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections dealing with rash and negligent driving and causing grievous hurt by an act of negligence.
The incident has brought to the fore the plight of thousands of Kolkatans who commute by bus, at the risk of falling down while boarding or getting off a bus or being run over even when the traffic signal for vehicles is red.
According to records with the traffic department of Kolkata police, as many as 196 persons had died in road accidents in Kolkata in 2021. Of them, 43 accidents involved buses.
Many commuters who travel by bus complained that buses neither stop at designated spots nor do they allow enough time for passengers to get on or off the vehicle.
“The bus stop closest to the Ruby crossing is near the IT building. But buses usually stop close to the crossing, where it is extremely dangerous to board or alight from the bus. I cannot wait at the crossing and have to run every day to catch a bus which never stops at the assigned place,” said a college student who lives in Kasba.
The Telegraph contacted the owner of the bus that was allegedly involved in Tuesday’s accident. He admitted that there were several traffic violation cases against his vehicle.
“When you run a bus service, such things (violations) are bound to happen. Most of the cases are for signal violations. But I have known the driver for years. He is very experienced,” said the owner, Prasit Saha.
He said he had learnt that the boy had forgotten to get off the bus near his school. “I was told that the boy jumped out of the moving bus,” he added.
The police said they would formally record Rishab’s statement once he recovers enough to talk to officers.