E-Paper
Chandigarh school bus mishap: Deceased boy’s 13-yr-old sister has miraculous escape
Still in shock, the 13-year-old who escaped with injuries on her right ear was inconsolable. Her mother, Pooja Sachdeva, too was not able to come to terms with the situation
“Bhai hai wo mera! Muhjhe dekhna do (He is my brother. Let me see him),” said a crying Khwaish Sachdeva, who came running out of her house as the funeral van arrived from the Kharar civil hospital with Samarth’s body.
Minutes before the accident on Monday morning, Khwaish was sitting next to her brother in their school bus.The siblings always sat together in the bus. On Monday morning too they were busy revising for their school exam when Khwaish got up from the rear seat and moved towards the front to sit with a friend.
Within a minute, a Punjab Roadways bus hit the St Joseph’s School vehicle on the Kharar-Morinda road, leaving her brother dead.
Khwaish will never be able to forget this tragedy, said one of her relatives outside their house in Green Avenue near Kharar’s grain market.
Still in shock, the 13-year-old who escaped with injuries on her right ear was inconsolable. Her mother, Pooja Sachdeva, too was not able to come to terms with the situation. She in fact refused to come out of the funeral van without her 10-year-old son’s body.
“Uspe khoon bahut laga hua ha. Mere bete ko saaf to kardo koi. Main use nehla ke aati hun. (My son is drenched in blood. I’ll bathe him first,” she said.
The white cloth in which Samarth’s body was wrapped had blood stains all over it due to fatal injuries he suffered on his head and neck.
‘Had complained about driver’
His father, Rampal Sachdeva, who is a private contractor, said: “Samarth left on the bus around 6:45am. After 20 minutes, I received a call that the bus has met with an accident on the highway.”
About 10 students were travelling in the bus when the accident took place. Some of the parents, who were present outside the house of the aggrieved family, alleged they had complained about the driver, Dharminder Singh, a couple of times to the school officials. They said he used to drive rashly and used foul language with children.
Meanwhile, Kharar sub-divisional magistrate Amninder Brar said: “We will inspect the accident spot on Tuesday. Basic facilities like signboards and cop deployment will be looked into and requirements will be conveyed to the authorities concerned.”
