A 10-year-old boy was killed when he got crushed between two MSRTC buses at the busy Swargate bus depot yesterdaymorning.
Police officials said the boy was crossing from one bay to another with his family when a reversing Pune-Vijaypur bus hit them. While the others escaped with minor injuries, the boy died on the spot.u00a0
Overcrowded: Swargate depot packed with buses. Pic/Krunal Gosavi
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Officials arrested the drivers of both the buses. The incident occurred at 8.45 am when the family of five — Shamu Bajantri, his wife Lalitha and their three children Amol (10), Dhanashree (7), and Hrishikesh (4) — got trapped between the Pune-Vijapur and Baramati-Pune bus.
The Baramati-Pune bus had just arrived at Swargate and was parked near platform six. The Pune-Vijapur bus came out from the depot and the drive was reversing to park it in the adjoining bay.
“Mismanagement of the buses is the main reason for the accident. There is a huge rush at Swargate due to Diwali, and the depot authority has not set any system for excess buses and crowd. People are confused while crossing platforms,” API Y G Kadam of Swargate police station said.
Swargate depot manager Vijay Divate said, “Swargate depot operates 1,800 buses daily. Apart from that we have pressed into service an additional fleet of 250 buses for Diwali. It is very difficult to manage additional buses. Madhukar Dikshit (50) and Sahebrao Shende, drivers of the two buses, are responsible for the incident.”
He said as per MSRTC’s provision, the family was paid Rs 5,000 as crematorium expenses and the MSRTC will further provide Rs 1 lakh as compensation. u00a0
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