A second pedestrian who was injured after a trainee driver boarded a Haryana Roadways coach bus without permission and hit several people in Gurugram’s Sector 37 last week has died during treatment at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, police said on Wednesday.
The death toll from the June 12 accident has now risen to two, while the trainee driver is still on the run and police are still searching for him.
The police identified the deceased as Kishon Dave, 36 years old, a resident of Sitamarhi district in Bihar state, who lives in Sector 37 and works in a factory in the area. “After initial treatment at the Civil Hospital in Sector 10 A, he had to be shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi due to his critical condition. However, he could not survive and died on Tuesday night,” Gurugram Police Public Relations Officer Sandeep Turan said.
“We are trying to arrest the driver. An FIR under Sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 281 (rash driving) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered against him at Sector 10 police station,” he added.
According to police officers, the 30-year-old trainee driver from Kadipur in Sector 10 was returning to a parking space at Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29, where he boarded the bus without permission between 12.30 pm and 1 pm on June 12.
The driver entered narrow side lanes and ended up hitting several people. Ravi Shankar, 51, originally from Satna in Madhya Pradesh state, was declared dead on Friday after being taken to hospital following the accident.
Meanwhile, Haryana Roadways has suspended Inspector Vidyanand, under whose supervision a group of 15 students left the inter-state bus stand near Sector 12 on June 12 for training in driving heavy vehicles.
“The bus, government property and trainees were under his supervision when one of the trainees secretly took the vehicle away on a joy ride from the parking lot near Leisure Valley Park Sector 29 and ended up causing the fatal accident. This should not have happened,” the roads official said.
He said that several changes are being made to the training pattern, and a lock-based ignition system will be installed in buses designated for students to ensure that such an accident does not occur again in the future.
Haryana Road officials said their school trains candidates to drive heavy vehicles and helps them obtain driving licenses according to vehicle categories. They said that these training buses do not need ignition keys and can be operated by anyone who enters them.
