Bangalore: Boy crushed to death by school van

Bangalore, Dec 5 (DHNS): In a freak accident, a six-year-old Class I student was crushed to death when he came under the wheels of his school van on the school premises in Shantinagar on Wednesday.

Manish, a student of Outreach School, adjacent to Shantinagar BMTC bus depot, came in front of the oncoming van and the driver, unable to stop the vehicle, ran over him.

Manish is the second son of Mahesh, a civil contractor, and Ashwini, a homemaker. The couple reside in Sudhama Nagar. Manish’s elder brother Yeshwanth is a Class VII student in the same school.

Ashwini was to pick up both her sons after school. She was shocked to get a call from one of the school staff around 2:30 pm on Wednesday that her younger son had met with an accident and had fractured his limb. The mother rushed to Agadi Hospital in Wilson Garden as directed by the caller. However, she was shattered to see her young son dead at the hospital.

Wilson Garden Traffic police said the boy came in the way of the school van so suddenly that the driver ran over him. He was rushed to nearby Agadi Hospital, where the boy succumbed to injuries.

The police have arrested Praveen, the van driver and registered a case against him. A senior police officer said, according to the van driver, the boy was playing with a ball and it probably rolled towards the parking lot from where he was bringing his van, with children inside, to drop them home.

Mahesh, the boy’s father, was livid with the school management. “The school management kept us in the dark till my wife went to the hospital. I suspect that my son was killed on the school premises and the school management attempted a cover-up,” he said. He also said that the school management had not contacted the distraught family till late in the night.

“A junior staffer was the only person at the hospital. The school management has been insensitive to our plight,” he said. Ashwini was inconsolable and not in a position to speak.

Dr B M Agadi, medical director of the hospital, told Deccan Herald that Manish was gasping for breath when brought to hospital. “The boy's condition was critical as he had suffered a severe head and leg injury. We tried to revive him with ventilator support but he died in a matter of minutes,” he added.

Venkatesh, the deceased boy’s uncle, said that the school was situated in a heavy traffic zone and the security was lax on the premises. The school has only one security guard, leaving young students on their own.

All attempts by Deccan Herald to contact the school management were in vain.