Bengaluru: In two separate incidents, two school bus drivers were caught by traffic police for drunk driving, while ferrying school children. Both the buses met with accidents, but fortunately with no casualties.
In the first incidents it was a narrow escape for around 20 students onboard a school bus after the driver lost control and rammed into few vehicles before hitting a median at Venkatala in Yelahanka on Wednesday afternoon.
The bus belonging to Narayana E-Techno School in Yelahanka was on its way to drop school children home. Around 1.15 pm, the school bus, driven by Ananda, grazed a two-wheeler and an auto, before colliding with the divider. Residents rushed to the rescue and pacified the children who were in a state of shock.
The Yelahanka traffic police rushed to the spot and detained the driver. “The blood alcohol level of the driver was 440 mg/dL on an alchometer which is way above permissive limits,” a traffic police officer said. It looks like he had consumed raw alcohol just before he started driving the bus and was not in a state to respond to questions, he added.
In another incident, a 30 year old Delhi Public School bus driver was caught by Whitefield traffic police. “Bus driver Ramachandra, who was ferrying school children in the morning and the bus met with a minor accident. When traffic policemen rushed to the rescue of the children, they found that Ramachandra was reeked of alcohol.
After performing an alchometer test, the police confirmed the driver was driving under influence and booked him,” said a traffic police officer.In August alone, the traffic police have nabbed eight school bus drivers for drunken driving while on duty.
