Mohan Kuthar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 22: In an incident which occurred at Vijayanagar near Chitranjalinagar in Kumpala, Ullal here on Wednesday July 22 morning, a bus swerved to the roadside, went downhill, and came to a stop after leaning on to the compound wall of a house, because of broken axle. Luckily, no major mishap occurred due to the snapping of the axle, and four passengers escaped with minor nicks and cuts.

The bus, bearing No 44 making trips between the city and Bagambila and operated by Ganesh Travels, was going up a steep road when its axle gave way all of a sudden. The bus as a result, began moving backward, plunged downhill, and stopped after hitting the compound wall of a house owned by Narayan. Although the bus was packed with passengers, there were no casualties or major injuries. Three women and a child suffered minor injuries.

The locals expressed relief at the fact that the bus went astray from the road. If it had moved straight back on the road, it would have approached a narrow bridge, and there was a strong possibility of the bus tumbling into the river, they added. At the same time, a high tension transformer on the other side of the road would also have posed a huge risk to the people, they pointed out.

The buses bound for the city from Kumpala need to take a turn at Bagambila. People, who want to secure a seat for their journey to the city, have developed the habit of boarding the bus when the bus moves towards Bagambila from where they turn back. Because of this, the buses normally are overloaded, and the drivers strive to negotiate the road passing over the steep cliff during this particular journey because of load factor. As none of the buses had arrived at Bagambila today morning, all the passengers who were waiting, had got into this bus, and therefore the bus was brimming with passengers, bus staff said.

A truck and a bus had met with accidents in the past at this point, but none were injured in these accidents.

Satish Kumpala, zillal panchayat vice president, noted that Kumpala happens to be located on the main road which connects Mangalore University from bypass road. 'Although this road is concreted, problems have cropped up because it is narrow. As people are not willing to give up their land for the road, its widening plans have hit a roadblock. Therefore, only six buses are plying on this road, and all these buses are always full of commuters. As if by coincidence, the spot where this accident has happened, widening work has been undertaken just now. The people also should make it a point to board buses only when they are moving towards Kumpala from Bagambila, and not when they move towards Bagambila,' he observed.