Second pedestrian hit by roadways school trainee driver in Gurugram dies: Police

A second pedestrian injured after a trainee driver allegedly took a Haryana Roadways training bus without permission and hit several people in Gurugram’s Sector 37 last week has died during treatment at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, police said on Wednesday.

The death toll in the June 12 incident has now risen to two, while the trainee driver remains absconding and a police search is underway.

Police identified the deceased as Kishun Dev, 36, a native of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, who lived in Sector 37 and worked at a factory in the area. “After initial treatment at the civil hospital in Sector-10A, he had to shifted to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi due to his critical condition. However, he could not survive and died on Tuesday night,” public relations officer of Gurugram police Sandeep Turan said.

“We are trying to arrest the driver. An FIR under section 106 (causing death by negligence) and 281 (rash driving) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered against him at Sector-10 police station,” he added.

According to police officers, the 30-year-old trainee driver from Kadipur in Sector 10 was returning to the parking spot at Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29, from where he had taken the bus without permission between 12.30 pm and 1 pm on June 12.

The driver had entered narrow by-lanes and ended up hitting multiple people. Ravi Shankhar, 51, originally from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, was declared dead on Friday after being taken to hospital following the accident.

Meanwhile, Haryana Roadways suspended inspector Vidyanand, under whose supervision a batch of 15 students had left the interstate bus depot near Sector 12 on June 12 for heavy vehicle driving training.

“The bus, a government property, and the trainee students were under his supervision when one of the trainees clandestinely took the vehicle away for a joy ride from parking lot near Leisure valley park Sector-29 and ended up causing the fatal accident. This should not had happened,” a roadways official said.

He said several changes are being made to the training pattern, and a lock-based ignition system will be installed in buses earmarked for students to ensure such an incident is not repeated in future.

Haryana Roadways officials said their school trains candidates to drive heavy vehicles and helps them obtain driving licences according to vehicle categories. They said these training buses do not require ignition keys and can be started by anyone who gets inside.