Mumbai: BEST bus drivers loses control, crashes into six vehicles at Vikhroli

The damaged BEST bus at the police station. Pic/Sameer Markande

A jammed brake pedal caus­ed a BEST bus driver to lose control of the vehicle and crash into six vehicles after grazing a divider at Vikhroli last night. While no one was injured in the incident, some vehicles were damaged.

The mishap occurred aro­und 10.15 pm on Thursday nig­ht, when the BEST bus, which was coming from Powai, lost control at the Gandhinagar Junction between LBS Marg and Vikhroli.


The smashed bumper of the Volkswagen Passat

The bus crashed into an SX4 from the back, which in turn collided with another Volkswagen Passat. Three other rickshaws that were around the bus were also damaged; a woman passenger and her mother who were in one of the rickshaws fell out of the vehicle in the collision and suffered minor grazes.

"I was heading from Andheri to Bhandup with the passengers," said 25-year-old Ash­ok Mahate, the driver of a rickshaw involved in the accident. "The bus was behind me, slightly to the left, and had been passing close to other vehicles way before the turn had arrived. The bus hit my rickshaw from the left at the turn, causing my passenger and her mother to fall out."


Shamdhar Yadav showing the damage to his auto after the accident

Manish Virdhi (42), a resident of Mulund and the owner of the Passat involved in the mishap, said, "The bus driver first smashed into the SX4, which in turn banged into my car from the back. At first, the driver said that the brakes had failed but is now saying his foot got stuck on the pedal. Either he was drunk, or was trying to speed."

"The bus was going from Dindoshi to Mulund check naka, when the accident happened," said Yeshwant Patil, inspector, Vikhroli depot. "We don't know yet exactly what caused the accident. An FIR has been registered at Sury­anagar Police Station."