The RTC bus ‘terror’ continued in Chikkadpally and Gandhinagar areas of the city, with two youngsters getting crushed in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to four in four days. And no one is sure when this dance of death will stop.
It began with the death of a 33-year-old Srinivas of Musheerabad fish market area when he came under the rear wheel of an RTC bus on Tuesday night. The bus was going from Golconda crossroad to Chikkadpally when the victim fell off the bike after the vehicle slipped into a pothole and he came under the rear wheel of the bus.
For the 33-year-old, death was instant. Next day, Vishal Reddy, a B.Tech student of Warangal, was killed while trying to overtake an RTC bus going from Chikkadpally to Musheerabad near BSNL office. He too came under the rear wheel of the bus.
“The reasons for the two fatal accidents are yet to be ascertained. But two lives could have been saved if the drivers were cautious,” said Chikkadpally Inspector N.L.N. Raju. However, everyone agreed that the tragedy near Kalpana crossroads near Kavadiguda could have been averted if the RTC bus driver took care. Sushmita Sharma and Syed Hasna Raza were riding a Scooty when the RTC bus rammed into it from behind at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Both of them got crushed under the front right wheel of the bus. “ Prima facie the driver is at fault. The bus was in a good condition,” Gandhinagar Inspector Sanjeeva Rao said.
RTC drivers have been told several times to drive safely and counselled against rash driving, said Hyderabad Traffic Police Additional Commissioner Jitender. So far, 60,000 challans were issued to drivers of RTC buses for violating different traffic rules. The percentage of payment of challans is, however, not more than 15. City police has written to the RTC to clear the pending challans.
