People gather at the site after a cluster bus hit a large number of vehicles near Bijwasan flyover, southwest Delhi, on Monday. (Photo: PTI )
People gather at the site after a cluster bus hit a large number of vehicles near Bijwasan flyover, southwest Delhi, on Monday. (Photo: PTI )
Around a dozen cars and motorcycles were involved in a pile-up in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera on Monday morning when a cluster bus driver jumped out of his running vehicle to escape mob fury.
Vehicles involved in the pile-up were severely damaged, but most of their occupants had miraculous escapes. Four persons needed to be admitted to hospitals with injuries, none of them life-threatening.
Plying on route number 578, the bus was headed from Safdarjung to Najafgarh around 9 am on Monday when a series of accidents took place on the Bijwasan Flyover near Kapashera.
According to Surender Kumar, DCP (southwest), the pile-up was triggered after the bus rammed into a motorcycle. “The motorcycle rider was flung far away and his two-wheeler skidded under the bus. Believing that he had run over and killed the motorcycle rider, the bus driver decided to speed away,” said Mr Kumar, giving details based on eyewitness accounts.
The driver, however, lost control and within seconds he rammed into a Wagon-R ahead, causing it to fly over to the other side of the road and hit a couple of vehicles on that side. The Wagon-R driver escaped with relatively minor injuries as he happened to fall out of his car mid-way as the door swung open.
“Meanwhile, the bus driver jumped out of his running vehicle and escaped,” said the DCP. Fear of possible mob fury is likely to have prompted the driver to indulge in such a dangerous act, the DCP said.
Left without a driver, the empty bus travelled for several metres down the flyover, hitting eight vehicles in the process, before it came to a stop.
Some occupants of these damaged cars had managed to get out in the nick of time while others were trapped inside. Passers-by played an important role in rescuing them.
