Mumbai: Four people, including three women, died and nine were injured after a reversing bus of Mumbai’s civic-run transport undertaking BEST knocked down pedestrians on Monday night, a police official said.
The incident took place around 10 pm at the busy Station Road in suburban Bhandup (West).
Four people, including three women, died, while nine were injured in the accident. The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital, said the police official.
The bus driver was detained, and a process was underway to register an FIR against him, he stated.
Even an hour after the tragedy, the public relations department of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) did not confirm the accident. BEST public relations officer Sucheta Utale or its general manager Sonia Sethi were not available for comment.
However, a senior civic official, who was not authorised to speak to the media, told PTI on condition of anonymity that the accident occurred when the bus was being reversed at the end point of its route outside Bhandup (West) suburban railway station.
The wet-leased midi bus involved in the accident was hired from Olectra Greentech. Under the wet lease model adopted by BEST, contactor or operator bears the fuel, driver, and maintenance cost of the bus, he explained.
As per primary information, the BEST undertaking’s own driver was behind the wheel at the time of the crash, the official said.
Earlier this year, mini buses, which were being operated on crowded routes connecting Bhandup station in the eastern suburbs to slum-dominated areas close to the foothills of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, were withdrawn from the BEST fleet.
