Five students of South City International School were injured on Tuesday morning when their school bus crashed into a private bus that had stopped in the middle of the Bypass to pick up passengers, a punishable offence that drivers routinely commit without being prosecuted.

Darsh Bhuwania, 4, had been gone just 15 minutes when someone called his mother to say that the school bus had met with an accident in front of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, barely 5km from their Ultadanga home. Her heart sank.

Darsh, a pre-primary student, was lucky to escape with a cut on his forehead that required three stitches. "He banged his head on the rod in front. What happened is scary for us parents," mother Tushita Bhuwania said.

The other four children on the bus were treated at Apollo Gleneagles for similar injuries.

The accident occurred around 6.45am, when a snarl-free Bypass would have allowed traffic to move at a steady speed. Witnesses said the bus on the Barasat-Baruipur route halted without moving away from the middle lane, catching the driver of the school bus by surprise.

By the time he braked, Class VI student Sparsh Agarwal was jolted out of his sleepiness in the last seat of the bus. "I had dozed off, only to be woken up by a wild jerk. I banged my head on something and realised that our bus had met with an accident," recounted the 11-year-old.

Class I student Vedika Agarwala, who was in the second row, got four stitches on her forehead.

The smashed front of the bus and the shards of glass strewn on the road even four hours after the accident spoke of what could have been. Just that in Calcutta, this is middle-of-the-road stuff in more ways than one.

Nobody bats an eyelid, least of all the police that hardly anyone fears nowadays, when bus drivers stop wherever they please to pick up or drop people. Passengers too think it is their right to hail a bus with the wave of a hand wherever they want rather than walk a few metres to the nearest designated bus stop.

Stricter implementation of traffic laws could reduce the rate of such accidents - more often than not, the victims are vehicles that follow the rules - because the one thing Calcutta doesn't lack is a proper bus stop on most stretches.

The law, of course, provides for prosecution of a driver for dangerous driving of the kind that put schoolchildren in peril on Tuesday. According to the Motor Vehicles Act, a driver committing his first offence is liable for a penalty of Rs 800. Consequent instances of dangerous driving can attract a maximum fine of Rs 2,000.

There is also a penalty of Rs 100 for buses not taking the designated bays, but the police evidently don't bother. The common excuse is: rogue drivers don't change their spots.

Anil Jha, head of the department of accounts and commerce at The Heritage School, saw on Tuesday morning how the callousness of a bus driver put so many young lives at risk. "The private bus stopped suddenly and the school bus rammed into it. I was in my car behind them. I got off and helped passers-by get the children out of the rear emergency exit because the main door got jammed," he said.

The Barasat-Baruipur bus sped away before anyone could react. The police said they were trying to "identify" the bus and its driver.

"We were worried and scared about the safety of our children and feel fortunate that the children do not have major injuries," said John Bagul, the principal of South City International School.

The father spotted by Metro boarding a bus with his school-going daughter in the middle of the Ultadanga-Bypass junction less than an hour after the accident possibly wasn't aware that traffic anarchy doesn't choose its victims.

FORGOTTEN FINES

♦ Penalty for first offence of dangerous driving: Rs 800
♦ Penalty for subsequent offences: Up to Rs 2,000
♦Fine for not sticking to bus bay: Rs 100 

All penalties under Motor Vehicles Act