A horrifying case at Tumakuru Devaraj Urs KSRTC Bus Stand has sent shockwaves across the state, showing students would take extreme risks trying to secure seats in this overcrowded public transport. One young female student experienced life-changing trauma when her lower leg crumpled under the rear wheel of a moving KSRTC bus. The sequence in real time inside our train station's CCTV cameras served to put that reality front and centre and serves as a cruel reminder that it’s a world of ‘slowness’ when the people are able to move through.
The sequence of the accident. A KSRTC bus travelling on the Tumakuru-Pavagada route was leaving out of a platform at around the time of the accident when a rush of students rushed at the KSRTC bus. As in most terminals such an event occurred here a group of students swarmed the bus (even as the bus stopped moving of course) and threw a bag through an open window into a passenger seat.
But under the force of the bus momentum and the crowded environment she felt that was what she lost her footing. As she stumbled, her leg was caught with the huge rear wheels of the vehicle. Witnesses describing what happened to her was pure pandemonium; one witness even looked out the window and screamed for the driver to stop, but the damage had already struck the student for good but not by force. To add insult to injury, her leg was badly scraped (the student’s leg was badly torn in the impact).
Emergency Response and Legal Action. The victim was immediately rushed to Tumakuru District Hospital where she is a hospital patient as her injuries are severe, sources said. However, the Tumakuru City Police attended the scene, took responsibility for the KSRTC bus and registered a formal case.
I think the tragedy points to an issue that is more systemic at Karnataka’s urban and rural transportation centers. Students who need to depend so much on government buses when they make their daily commute (and have to stop off when they arrive at home at the central transportation center). The shortage of seating is leading to a “window-seating culture” that is all about throwing bags or scarves up or through windows of moving cars as an effort to claim seat.
The state also called on commuters, again, to prioritise safety for transportation. The police investigate, at the end of the day, if there exists negligence from the driver but the true cause is “human indifference” or the “hurried decision” that caused the disaster.
