Around 20 students of Shri Shikshayatan school had a close shave on Thursday morning when the brakes of the bus carrying them failed and the vehicle slid down a slope beside Lorry Road in Entally.

The left rear wheel got stuck in slush and sank deep, causing the bus to tilt precariously to the left. The bus could have fallen and crushed a row of shanties had not the trunk of a recently felled tree propped it up.

“The driver was manoeuvring the bus backward when it started rolling down the roadside slope. The help was yelling at him to stop but he didn’t listen,” said a Class VII student, who lives in Kankurgachhi.

The students were trapped as the only gate was blocked by the slush. Alarmed by their cries, some residents rushed to the spot. Joined by two sergeants from the Sealdah Traffic Guard, they broke open the windshield and the glass panes in the rear and rescued the students.

The bus was later taken to Entally police station and a case of rash and negligent driving was filed against the driver, Om Prakash Sahani, who is absconding.

“My daughter Bhavna was on the bus. She was injured in the leg when she jumped out while being rescued. She is yet to get over the shock,” said Ashok Kesriwal. “I’ll have to speak to the bus operator and decide whether we should still send Bhavna to school by the bus.”

Traffic sergeant Biswanath Roy said: “We removed the iron mesh covering the glass panes in the rear and smashed one of the glass sheets. Some residents by then had broken open the windshield.”

Once the students were brought out, they were taken to a police camp in Entally.

The cops informed the Shri Shikshayatan authorities, who sent a Tata Sumo to ferry the students to school.

But since all the students could not be accommodated in the vehicle, the police hired two taxis.

“I heard something was wrong with the bus tyre but it was nothing major. All the children reached school safely,” said Shri Shikshayatan principal Sharada Narayanaswami.

Babloo Jaiswal, an employee of Om Services Private Limited, which ferries the school’s students in four buses and two Tata Sumos, admitted before the police that the brakes of the vehicle had failed.

“I am not sure why it happened. We check our buses once a week,” Babloo said.

The residents of the shanties along Lorry Road said the soil beside the road is being washed away by rainwater flowing down the slope.

“With the railings on both sides vanishing and the soil getting washed away almost daily, it’s sheer luck that vehicles have not toppled over our shanties. Had the school bus fallen today, many of us would have died trapped in our houses,” said Bhubaneswar Shaw, a resident.