The Mumbai police probing the Bhandup accident involving a BEST bus on Friday said that the driver Santosh Sawant had driven one round in the same bus before restarting the bus for a second round when the accident took place. This belies the driver’s claim that an earlier driver had kept the bus in drive mode and pulled the hand brake.
“The driver pressed the accelerator instead of the brake due to which the stationary bus jumped at the spot and raced ahead,” an officer said.
He added, “ hile the driver earlier tried to mislead us by pinning the blame on the earlier driver but it is now clear that he was lying. It was his error that led to the accident, the officer added.The police had arrested the driver and he was remanded in police custody till Saturday. The police have also found that there was no technical issue with the bus and the error was on the part of the driver.
The incident took place on Monday night around 9.30 pm when the electric bus knocked down nearly 12 people of whom four succumbed to the injuries they sustained in the incident.
The police had later registered an FIR in the matter and arrested driver.
Santosh is a permanent BEST employee with nearly two decades of experience. He had been driving electric buses since the last three months.