The bus carrying school students stuck on the slope after the accident; (above) the mangled rear of the bus. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A tree on the edge of Brace Bridge in Taratala saved a school bus ferrying 22 students from falling 15 feet and crashing into a concrete road on Wednesday afternoon.

The students of Kendriya Vidyalaya Garden Reach, between six and 16 years of age, could get off the bus after the tree broke its fall. No one was seriously injured.

The 35-year-old driver, Kartik Mondal, has been arrested and charged with negligence of duty. The bus (WB19A-3659), owned by a private company named Mondal Services, has the permit to run as a school bus.

The school authorities said parents had hired the bus. “We have heard that the brakes of the bus had failed. It is a private bus hired by parents,” said an official of the school.

The students said the bus had developed a snag on the bridge while it was ferrying them home around 2.30pm.

“The bus came to a halt in the middle of the bridge and smoke was coming out of the engine. The driver asked us to get down,” recounted a Class III student who was on the back seat.

Some senior students jumped out and started to push the bus with local residents. “The engine came alive but after the students boarded the bus, it stopped again. Soon after, the bus started rolling down the northern slope. We all got terribly frightened and started shouting for help,” said another student.

A tragedy was averted after a tree on the edge of the bridge broke the fall of the bus. The vehicle’s glass panes broke and many students were thrown off the seats under the impact of the collision with the tree.

“Fifteen feet below the bridge is a concrete road. I shudder to think what would have happened had the bus not hit the tree,” said a resident.

“A preliminary investigation has revealed that the air pipe of the brakes had burst, because of which the brakes did not work. The driver lost control and tried to steer the bus to a side of the road when the vehicle hit the tree,” said an officer of Taratala police station.

The police reached the spot five minutes later and called up the parents. One of the parents alerted the school authorities and a teacher was sent to the spot.

A parent said the bus was still on the slope when he reached the spot around 3.30pm.

“Seeing the bus I realised what a close shave my son and daughter and the other children had,” the father said. The son studies in Class II and the daughter in Class VI.