DPS Bus Accident: Police Book Dead Driver, MP Govt Orders Probe After Outrage

Indore: Police in Madhya Pradesh have booked the driver of the school bus which crashed along the Indore bypass killing him along with four students.

The accident occurred on Friday after the steering wheel jammed of the bus belonging to Delhi Public School in Indore and it swerved into the opposite lane before colliding into a truck coming from the other side.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manoj Kumar Rai told PTI that an FIR was lodged at the Kanadiya police station under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against Rahul Sisodia Sisodia (35) and some unidentified persons.

However, following public outrage over the accident, Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh ordered DIG, Indore, to probe the accident.

The probe report, a copy of which is available to News18, revealed that the bus at the time of the incident was running at the speed of 80km/hour which was sufficient to prove that the speed governor fitted in the vehicle was not working properly.

Furthermore, DPS student Harman Singh who also used to travel in the same bus, told the media that Sisodia had told him about technical snags in the bus which he complained to administration but no one paid any attention.

“Had I attended school on Friday, I would have talked to school administration as requested by the driver,” he said.

Following the report, the government has ordered a case to filed against DPS Indore and the company which manufactured the defective speed governor. The order mentioned that the bus driver had complained to the school administration regarding some technical snag in the vehicle but the management did not listen to his inputs.

A large crowd turned up to pay tribute to the children who died in the accident and took part in their funeral procession on Saturday.

RTO Bhopal did not confirm the claims that no school bus failed fitness test in one year in the city. However, one of the officers off the record accepted that they don’t reject application and hold it until shortcomings are done away with.

(With inputs from Vivek Trivedi)