Mumbai RTO officials suspect that "human error" and "lack of proper training" contributed to the accident in Kurla, where a BEST bus collided with pedestrians, resulting in seven fatalities and 42 injuries. Following the incident on Monday night, an investigation team from the Wadala Regional Transport Office (RTO) confirmed that the brakes of the Olectra-make electric bus were functioning properly.
The e-bus, operated by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, crashed into pedestrians and vehicles around 9:30 pm on Monday on S G Barve Marg in Kurla (West).
Sanjay More (54), the driver of the ill-fated bus, was arrested following the incident. Initially, brake failure was suspected to be the cause of the accident, with More's family also suggesting that the brakes may have malfunctioned and confirming that he had not consumed alcohol. On Tuesday morning, a team from the Wadala RTO, led by motor vehicle inspector Bharat Jadhav, conducted an inspection of the bus at BEST's Kurla depot.
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An official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI that when the RTO team inspected the bus, it found its brakes were working fine. However, before submitting the probe report, they want to investigate a few more things, and hence they have sought some details from both Olectra and BEST.
The official stated that the driver appeared to lack experience in handling the automatic transmission bus, which operates without a clutch and gear like conventional buses. It is believed that he was not properly trained before being allowed to drive the 12-meter-long vehicle. "If a driver is inexperienced with an automatic transmission bus, they may struggle with acceleration and braking, leading to poor judgment. As a result, human error likely contributed to the accident," the official explained.
During RTO's inspection of the accident-struck bus, the brakes and all other systems, including its headlights, were found to be operating fine, the official added. The electric bus was just three months old as it was registered in the name of EVEY TRANS on August 20. The driver was supplied through a Pune-based third-party agency, as per RTO sources.