At least 10 passengers of a private bus were injured when it rammed into a divider on Diamond Harbour Road in Behala on Monday.
Police said the driver hit the divider to bring the bus to a halt as the steering wheel was malfunctioning.
Eyewitnesses told the police that the bus of route 12C/1 connecting Shibrampur, on the southern fringes, and Howrah station, was heading to Howrah when the accident took place around noon.
The bus was waiting at a signal on Diamond Harbour Road near No. 14 bus stand in Behala. As the signal turned green, it starting moving.
“After going a few feet, the bus swerved towards the divider and rammed into it,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police’s south suburban division said.
“There weren’t many passengers on board. Some of them who were seated lunged ahead because of the impact and received minor injuries.”
As the bus came to a halt, officers on traffic duty reached the spot and rescued the passengers. The injured were rushed to Vidyasagar State General Hospital.
They were treated at the hospital’s outdoor department and later discharged.
“We have arrested the driver. The bus has been seized and removed to Behala police station. The driver claimed that all of a sudden he realised that the steering was not working. To avert a major accident, he hit the divider,” the police officer said
Officers have summoned the bus owner and sought the help of forensic experts to
find out whether the steering had developed a technical snag.
“The driver promptly took the decision to hit the divider so that the bus came to a halt,” the officer said.
A section of bus owners said a steering wheel failure can happen because of multiple reasons, including leaks in the power steering system, a faulty steering pump and use of a low-power steering fluid.
Biker hurt
A 33-year-old motorcyclist was injured on his right hand after his vehicle was hit by a
truck at the Belvedere Road and Alipore Road intersection on Sunday night, police
said.
Goutam Roy, a resident of Howrah, is admitted to the trauma care unit of SSKM Hospital.
Roy was wearing a helmet, the police said.