Kerala - Kochi

Police begin crackdown on errant bus drivers

KOCHI: The City Traffic Police have started a crackdown on errant private bus drivers in the city, following Friday’s gruesome accident in which a girl student was run over by a city bus.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (City Traffic) K.B. Venugopal said that 12 drivers were rounded up for “rash and dangerous driving and also for causing obstructions on the roads” on Saturday.

The errant drivers’ licences would be seized if they repeated the offences and for habitual offenders, the police would direct the Road Transport Authority to cancel the permits allotted to the bus operators.

The tragedy on the roads on Friday has created a wave of revulsion among the travelling public against the runaway private bus crew, who more often than not, take law into their own hands.

Meanwhile, the three members of the bus crew including driver Rajesh of Rajakkad, involved in Friday’s accident, have been remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.

Private bus owners and workers must end the reckless driving indulged in by buses in the city, the DYFI has demanded.

The youth organisation’s district secretary C.B. Devadarsanan said bus workers have for years been misbehaving with passengers, especially students.

The DYFI will take out a march to the Kaloor bus stand on Monday evening, to warn private busmen against rash driving and misbehaviour.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu