U-turn goes wrong, witnesses blame hawkers: What to know on Mumbai BEST bus accident that killed 4

FOur people were killed piece ix others were injured when a Brihanmumbai electric automobile provide and ship Undertaking (BEST) bus reversed and struck passengers standing in a queue in Mumbai on Monday night. The incident took place at 10.05 pm outside Bhandup railway station in the city.Deputy commissioner of police, zone 7, Hemraj Rajput, told HT that the driver was taken into custody and the seriously injured were taken to Fortis Hospital.Mumbai BEST bus accident: What we know so farAs per preliminary reports, the 52-year-old driver was attempting to take a U-turn to move to the adjacent bus depot when he accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brakes and rammed the bus into the queue of passengers.Four people, including three women and one man, were killed in the incident, according to police. Meanwhile, nine passengers were also injured in the accident.Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced financial assistance of ₹5 lakh to the families of the deceased. Expressing grief over the incident, he called the accident “extremely unfortunate” and hoped for the “speedy recovery” of the injured.The air-conditioned nine-metre Olectra bus was operating on a wet lease and was running on the 606 Ring Road route between Nagardas Nagar and Bhandup station, a BEST spokesperson confirmed.Local shopkeepers were among the first to help after the incident. Bhagwandas, who owns a sweet shop on the same road, said they immediately called an ambulance and informed the police. Some of the injured were taken into the shop, given water and helped while efforts were made to contact their families, as mentioned in an earlier HT report.A Bhandup police station officer said that the lane just outside the railway station is among the most crowded in the suburb. He said hawkers occupy much of the space, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road as there is little room left to pass.Several eyewitnesses blamed hawkers for encroaching on the footpath, which they said left pedestrians with no choice but to walk on the road. Saimini Mudaliyar, a pharmacist, told PTI that buses ending their trips at Bhandup station struggle to make a U-turn outside the railway station because of hawkers and heavy crowds during late evenings.Monday’s incident was the second accident involving Mumbai’s civic-run transport body BEST in two back-to-back Decembers. Last year, on December 9, a BEST bus hit passengers in Kurla, killing nine people and injuring 37 others.With inputs from agencies