7 Killed, 40 Injured After Bus Rams Vehicles, Residential Complex Gate In Mumbai

Seven people were killed and 40 were injured after a state-run bus rammed some vehicles on a busy road in Mumbai’s Kurla (West) on Monday.

CCTV footage shows the red bus barrelling down the road at a high speed. The first vehicle it rammed was an autorickshaw.

The brakes of the BEST bus may have failed, a municipal corporation official told news agency PTI.

The injured people have been admitted to Sion and Kurla Bhabha Hospitals.

The accident happened at 9.50 pm. The BEST bus route number 332 was going from Kurla station to Andheri.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking, or BEST, provides transport service to the entire city and also extends its operations outside city limits into neighbouring urban areas.

The official said the bus driver lost control and rammed some pedestrians and vehicles. It then crashed into the gates of a residential complex, the official said.

An eyewitness to the BEST bus crash said it was swerving over a stretch of 200 metres before the accident. Zaid Ahmed, a 26-year-old resident of the area, said he was leaving his house to go to the railway station when he heard a loud noise.

“I ran to the spot and saw a BEST bus had hit pedestrians, other vehicles, including an autorickshaw and three cars. I saw some bodies. We rescued the passengers in the autorickshaw and took them to Bhabha Hospital in another three-wheeler. My friends also helped in providing relief to the injured,” Mr Ahmed told PTI.

Other eyewitnesses said the bus also rammed a police vehicle.

The vehicle was a 12-metre-long electric bus manufactured by Olectra and it had been taken by BEST on a wet lease, another official said, adding the drivers of such buses are supplied by the private operator.

“The bus is just three months old. It was registered on August 20 this year in the name of a company called EVEY Trans,” a Tardeo regional transport office (RTO) official said.