Uttar Pradesh: Class 6 student dies after slipping through damaged floor of school bus in Agra
The driver of the bus is in custody but the school manager is absconding, police said.
A Class 6 student in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district died on Tuesday after he slipped through the damaged floor of a bus, Hindustan Times reported. Aditya Singh, 13, was run over by the rear wheel and died on the spot, the police said. He was a student of Sri Puran Chandra Ramesh Chandra Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College in Kheragarh.
The incident took place when the students were on their way back from the school. Aditya Singh’s sister was also in the bus with him. “The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination,” Station House Officer of Kheragarh Narendar Sharma told the newspaper. “The boy’s family members are yet to file a complaint and a case would be registered after that. Bus driver Islam is in custody and the vehicle has been seized by the police.”
His sister said that the floor of the bus was weak and the vehicle itself was in a poor condition. “The bus often used to stop midway and students were asked to push it,” she told Hindustan Times. “In the process, they used to get hurt.”
Sharma said that the floor of the bus was corroded. “The school manager Mahesh Chandra was found to be absconding. There was no official or teacher present in the school when a police team went to detain the manager,” Sharma told The Times of India.
Around 384 buses or vans out of 1,282 vehicles ferrying students to and from 984 schools in Agra have been reportedly sent notices in the last two months to get fitness certificates, The Times of India reported. Regional Transport Office official Anil Kumar said at least 98 school vans and buses were found flouting norms. He said none of the schools have responded to their notices.
“The bus [involved in the death of the child] was operated by the school management which had failed to get its fitness test done,” Kumar said. “A probe has been initiated into the incident.”
The bus had a Himachal Pradesh registration number and the Agra Regional Transport Office does not have any record of the vehicle.