Kannur: A 19-year old pillion rider lost her life when she was knocked down by a speeding bus at Thazhe Chovva junction in Kannur on Thursday, triggering public outrage. The traffic there went haywire for almost two hours as hundreds of students and local people sat there in protest after the incident at 9.15 am. Aathira (19) of Kanjirodu Thalamunda and her father Hareesh were crossing the junction on their way to her college.
Police said Kozhikode-bound Omega Bus (KL 11AP 6399), which was reportedly overspeeding, hit the bike and Aathira fell under the wheels of the bus while Hareesh was thrown off to the other side. After the accident, the bus crew fled the spot, and the angry mob damaged the bus. The victim was a final year history student at SN College, Kannur.
The bus which took the life of Aathira.
Soon after the news reached the college, hundreds of students and locals staged a blockade till 11.15 am affecting the entire traffic between Kannur to Thalassery and Kuthuparamba sides. Mayor E.P. Latha, district police chief K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin and others visited the spot and held talks with the protesters. The authorities assured stringent action against the bus driver and steps to control speeding buses and installing surveillance cameras there.
After postmortem, the body kept for public viewing at the college and at home where hundreds of mourners turned up. Meanwhile, a section of private buses stopped service on Kannur-Kuthuparamba and Kannur-Thalassery routes protesting the alleged attack on buses.
