Mishap at bus station: RTC driver, two officials suspended

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) on Tuesday suspended a RTC driver V Prakasam and two officials for the ghastly accident that claimed three lives at the Pandit Nehru bus station on Monday morning. The Vijayawada-Guntur bus ran over a conductor and two passengers killing them on the spot when driver mistakenly applied first gear instead of reverse gear.

The RTC has constituted a three-member committee with officials to conduct a detailed enquiry into the mishap. The committee on Tuesday submitted its report stating that the driver has no sufficient training to operate the Volvo vehicle.

The committee also stated that the Auto Nagar bus depot manager Praveen Kumar and assistant depot manager V V Lakshmi have failed to perform their duties properly.

Assistant depot manager Lakshmi assigns the drivers for the duty. Driver Prakasam has no training to run Volvo buses having automatic gears. RTC officials found fault with the depot manager Praveen Kumar stating that he had failed to supervise the depot activities.

RTC has suspended the driver and two officials regarding the mishap after the submission of report by the committee. It also decided to conduct departmental enquiry on the two officials.

It may be noted that the Vijayawada-Guntur non-stop AC bus driver applied the first gear instead of reverse leading to mishap, which claimed three lives including a conductor, a woman and her grandson aged 18 months.

APSRTC while setting up the committee stated that it was a human error and the driver has no training to run the bus.