Nine people including five school students were killed as two overspeeding buses had a head-on collision on the Thrissur-Palakkad highway late on Wednesday night. The school students were part of a school excursion team to Nilgiris when the accident occurred. The teacher accompanying them and three passengers of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus, too, died on the spot in the accident. All the dead students were Plus Two students in a Church-run public school in Ernakulam suburb.
The incident shocked the President of India Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who condoled the deaths. The Prime Minister declared a cash assistance of Rs 2,00,000 to the families of the deceased while those injured were allocated Rs 50,000 each.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, leading a team of ministers to Norway expressed shock over the incident and has ordered a probe. Transport Commissioner S Sreejith told reporters at Thiruvanant-hapuram that the bus carrying the students was being driven as a speed of 97 km per hour and it was also found that the operator had altered the speed governor that limited the speed limit to 80 km per hour.
The driver of the tourist bus escaped from the accident site but was held at Kollam by the police making use of CCTV images and mobile phone calls. He has been charged with culpable homicide for the death of nine persons. Owner of the bus too was arrested by the Police.
Accidents involving tourist buses that have incorporated a lot of changes like flash lights, woofers, high-decibel music which are not in compatible with the rules specified by the Motor Vehicles Department have become regular events in the State. There is widespread complain against the KSRTC from former staff who allege that drivers with no experience in ferrying passengers were being chartered on contract basis. “Most of the drivers working with the KSRTC do not have sufficient experience in driving buses.,” said PV Kuriakose, a former driver with the KSRTC who has put in 30 years of service.