Mumbai: Three people suffered minor injuries after a BEST bus driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle at Gokhale Bridge traffic signal in Andheri West when he released the handbrake and the bus lurched forward while his leg was on the accelerator.D N Nagar police registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the driver, Prashant Khaje (37), and arrested him. He underwent a medical examination to verify whether he was drunk at the time of the incident. Prima facie, the driver was found at fault.The accident occurred at 11.30 am when the bus en route A-221 was travelling from Andheri bus station to Versova bus station. “Probe showed that the driver’s leg was on the accelerator and he released the handbrake. He lost control because he had already stepped on the accelerator. Khaje underwent medical examination for drunk driving and the report is awaited. Preliminary report showed he was not drunk,” a senior D N Nagar police officer told TOI.After losing control, the bus crashed into four autorickshaws, a car and a scooter. The rickshaw driver, Yunus Shaikh (55), suffered a nose injury, pedestrian Manojkumar Bajdev (30) sustained a neck injury, and scooterist Anis Nisar Dhari (20) suffered injuries to his waist.After getting medical assistance, Shaikh reached D N Nagar police station and filed a complaint against the BEST driver. Pedestrian Bajdev told cops that he had no complaint against BEST, and scooterist Dhari gave his statement after getting discharged from Cooper Hospital.According to BEST officials, the driver allegedly released the handbrake while the bus was halted at the signal, causing the vehicle to suddenly lurch forward and hit vehicles waiting ahead.The conductor immediately alerted the police through the emergency helpline, following which the injured were rushed to Cooper Hospital for treatment. Officials said all three were receiving medical attention and the exact cause of the mishap was under investigation.The latest accident once again spotlighted a series of recent chain-collision incidents involving wet-lease buses. In June, a BEST electric air-conditioned bus crashed into multiple vehicles in traffic near Plaza Cinema in Dadar, killing a 22-year-old delivery executive and injuring six others. In the same month, another BEST bus was involved in a fatal chain collision.Senior BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya alleged that accidents increased due to inadequate driver training and increasing dependence on wet-lease operators. “Such incidents were rare earlier. Wet-lease drivers do not face the same level of accountability as permanent BEST drivers,” he said.While BEST planned to gradually reduce reliance on wet-lease buses and induct around 5,000 owned buses, Ganacharya urged BMC to provide advance funding to accelerate fleet procurement, warning that safety concerns could persist for the next two to three years otherwise.
