Mumbai : BEST to pull up negligent officials

After a BEST bus killed an 83-year-old woman, mother of two BEST staff, the undertaking began probing the conduct of its depot and traffic staff in other such road accidents.

After a Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) bus killed an 83-year-old woman, mother of two BEST staff, the undertaking began probing the conduct of its depot and traffic staff in other such road accidents.

The 83-year-old woman died last week after being hit by BEST bus number 608, plying between Kanjurmarg station and Pratapnagar, around at 11.30am. The bus driver Pandurang Sawant fled the scene.

For more than an hour after the incident, no official from BEST reached the spot of accident despite protocol that mandates a depot or traffic manager should reach the site as soon as being informed.

“This is a serious lapse on the part of the administration. The bus was left in neutral gear and could have caused even more mayhem. Ideally, a traffic or depot manager should have taken charge of the situation,” said Ashok Patil, a committee member of a meeting held on Thursday.

According to standard operating procedure (SOP), any available official from the nearest depot must reach the accident spot.

“We will investigate why no official reached the spot soon after receiving information from the control room. We also plan to revise the existing SOP to cover any lapses,” said OP Gupta, general manager, BEST.

Since January 2013, there have been 21 fatal accidents involving BEST buses.