25-year-old biker killed after being hit by bus in Mumbai, days after deadly Kurla accident

Police have arrested the bus's driver and conductor in connection with the motorcyclist's death in the accident.

Days after a BEST bus accident killed seven persons in Mumbai's Kurla, a 25-year-old man died after being run over by the electric busy in the Govandi area, police said.

Four days after the Kurla accident, BEST bus services had just resumed on Friday. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The incident took place late on Saturday at the Shivaji Nagar junction in Govandi when the victim, Dikshit Vinod Rajput, was on his motorcycle, ANI reported.

A police official said that the man suffered a severe head injury and was rushed to the Rajawadi Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The electric buses are hired by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking on a lease-basis.

Police arrested the 39-year-old driver of the bus, Vinod Aabaji Rankhambe, along with the conductor Avinash Vikramrao Gite, under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) Act, NDTV reported. The official said that further probe into the matter is underway.

Kurla bus accident

Earlier this week, a BEST bus mowed down seven people to death and injured 42 others along the SG Barve Marg in Kurla west. Over a 100-metre stretch, it collided with 30 to 40 vehicles before ramming into the RCC column of the Solomon Building, breaking its compound wall, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Later, police arrested 54-year-old Sanjay More, driver of the BEST bus, who lost control over the wheels on route A322 while plying from Kurla station to Sakinaka.

The bus was a 12-metre-long electric vehicle manufactured by Hyderbad-based Olectra Greentech, and BEST had taken it on a wet lease.

More later told the Police that he was uncomfortable with operating the automatic transmission of the electric bus, which he had been assigned on December 1.

Two days later, Regional Transport Officers (RTO) shared a preliminary assessment of the incident's report with the police, saying that there was no technical fault with the bus.

They also corroborated that Sanjay More was not fully trained to deal with the electric bus, noting that he had received only three rounds of training in an e-bus by the wet lease contractor. This was in contrary to the BEST's internal SOP that mandates a six-week refresher training for drivers going from manual to e-buses.

Unfortunately, More's discomfort led to the tragic incident, which claimed the lives of seven persons.

Notably, it was only on Friday that the BEST resumed its services around the Kurla west area.