KSRTC officials said that it was not the driver’s fault as per their knowledge, but after the video came out, they were forced to change that stand.
BHPian harimkd recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Kerala is infamous for road accidents and bad driving habits, just like any other place in India. Road rage is also very common in Kerala, where there are mostly narrow roads with heavy traffic. But a rare road rage event and its result caught on dashcam become heartbreaking news in which a State RTC bus was involved in killing two youths aged around 24 years.
The event happened on 07-Feb-2022, on the Palakkad – Thrissur stretch of NH 544, near Kuzhalmannam, about 10 km from Palakkad. I was coming to Ernakulam from Palakkad, and it was around 9 PM at night. The road was almost vacant on that stretch, and I was cruising in my S-Cross at 75 km/h. When I reached the particular spot, I saw a slow-moving truck in the left lane, a multi axle truck moving at around 40-45 km/h in the right lane, and the particular bike in front, followed by a bus, a pick-up truck and a Ritz car behind it.
The Ritz car was slowly moving in the right lane, and the slow-moving truck was some distance away from this car. The bus overtook the Ritz from the left and tried to overtake the bike, which was in the right lane at that time. As the slow-moving truck was ahead, it was not possible, but surprisingly, the KSRTC driver still tried to perform such an overtaking maneuver. When the bike started overtaking the truck in the right lane from its left, it kept to the centre of the two lanes. I think it don’t want to block the way of the KSRTC bus behind. The KSRTC driver started to overtake the truck in the right lane from the left, and at that time, the bike had crossed almost half of the truck.
The KSRTC driver turned to the left lane at high speed and suddenly, he cut to the right, honking (it is audible in the video). The bikers never expected such a move, but before they could do anything, the bus was in front of them, and they had to apply the brake. By that time, the bus came very close to them, they collided with the bus, and the youths went under the lorry and the bike went under the bus. Both lost their lives on the same spot as they fell under the rear wheels of the multi-axle lorry.
Even though I had noticed the unusual hurry of the bus in overtaking the bike, this was unexpected, especially from a state RTC driver. There were few cars behind, and I was worried that applying the brake may be dangerous. So, I had no option but to turn towards the non-tarred portion of the road. But this action became important later, as this helped to show that the road ahead of KSRTC was vacant and no person or vehicle was present, thus making it clear that the driver moved right not to save anyone or any vehicle.
As other cars were behind, I had no option but to overtake the slowing bus from the left. I was not sure how the bus driver would react after the accident. When we see the footage on a mobile phone, it may seem that there was very little space between the bus and my car, but in reality, there was enough space. When I overtook the bus and made myself safe, I tried to park the car, but a few trucks were parked, so I had to move some more distance. I had seen the youths falling under the truck’s wheels and was sure that nothing could save them now. I didn’t want to see their body in that condition. Later, the police and locals had to try very hard to get their remains from the truck’s tyres. So after spending some time and calming myself, I resumed my journey.
When I reached home, I saw initial reports of the incident on news channels. The truck driver said he had nothing to do with the accident, and KSRTC driver said that when he overtook the truck, the bike came at high speed and collided with the truck and the accident happened. The bike was a KTM duke, and naturally, everyone thought that it was the fault of the bikers with a combination of “sports bike” and younger rider. The truck is from Andhra, and the driver was unaware of the actual incident, which happened at the rear, but due to language and location barriers, he could have been an easy target.
When such an incident happens, and you have dashcam evidence, the golden rule is to submit the evidence at the “right place and time”. However, as a government vehicle is involved, strong unions can divert the issue or turn things around. So I planned to make the visuals public first so that the issue should not vanish in the future. I contacted one of my close friends in Manorama News, one of the largest news channels in Kerala, and he followed up on the incident. The reporter was very upset as he had to give an initial report as it was the fault of the bikers. Luckily, I was using a 4K dash cam, which caught the incident very clearly. The video had no lag or noise, and even when they played the video on their big screen, it was very clear. They understood the seriousness of the incident when they watched it on big screen as we can understand clearly how much gap was there on the road and the scary movement of the KSRTC bus and how the bikers fell in between the bus and truck. Normally, I play music while driving, but somehow, the music was paused on that day. This helped record the honking sound of the bus, which reflected the seriousness of the issue. The video also showed the location, time and speed of the vehicle at the time of the accident, thus making it clear evidence.
The report came out the next day morning, and things turned from there onwards. Earlier, KSRTC officials said that it was not the driver’s fault as per their knowledge. But after the video came out, they were forced to change that stand. The police, KSRTC and MVD stand strong, and they have given the initial report that it was the fault of the KSRTC driver.
I don’t know why the KSRTC driver did this. A few locals said that they had an argument 5 minutes back. But prior to this incident, the road was vacant, and chances of blocking the bus by the bike is very rare. Anyway, the police are checking the camera footage from CCTV cameras en route and hope something will turn up. Now, only the driver knows exactly why he did it. Anyway, I hope whoever the culprit is, he should get a model punishment so that other drivers won’t repeat this in the future. I hope justice will prevail.
Keyword: My Dashcam footage brings justice after a fatal accident