[harimkd]

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.

Accident Video:

https://youtu.be/wnBmvhQffGA

Full event :

https://youtu.be/7fYtC0S0xXk

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by binand

He was arrested by the police today apparently (the news report doesn't say what IPC sections were charged though).

Based on the second video posted by Bibendum90949, the driver is already out on bail. I believe the driver has been charged with causing death by negligence.

[RR96]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

Now media reports are emerging that the driver had deliberately steered the bus and hit the bike. There were altercations between the biker and driver prior to the mishap.
...

Senior Auto-journalist Baiju N Nair shares his opinion about the accident. According to him it is a murder rather than an accident. The fact that the driver had considerable space to his left and still steers the bus to the right shows that the driver did it intentionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHIdFikvG_4

[Rahul Rao]

Can any one give translations of this in either English or Hindi so that non Malyali people can understand it.
There is a reason why drivers were not allowed to get unionised as per MTW act, these were later struck down by different high courts without understanding the problems thoroughly.
I also want to know the situation of the truck driver who going peacefully at a moderate speed and has been dragged into this. There will be some people may blame him for being in the middle lane without noting that trucks are allowed middle lane on 4 lane stretches in areas with 2 wheeler traffic, and areas with shops, markets and hotels directly opening on to the highway, and highways without LHS dividers separating bilanes.

[Sarath_]

This incident is unfortunate and disturbing indeed. The value of human life continues to be on a downward spiral.
I hope the families get some respite from the government.

[shravansp24]

At 0:58th second of the complete video, we can have a glimpse of the biker starting to overtake the slow-moving truck, but the impatient bus driver(whom we can see driving erratically from the 37th second) decided to overtake the truck along with the motorcycle

But then too, the driver could've just overtaken completely before moving to the right hand lane but he decided to merge at 1:05, a point at which he hasn't overtaken the truck nor the motorcycle.

there's absolutely no reason for him as far i can see to take a sudden right and squeeze them between the 2 giant vehicles

[anb]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

C
I also want to know the situation of the truck driver who going peacefully at a moderate speed and has been dragged into this. There will be some people may blame him for being in the middle lane without noting that trucks are allowed middle lane on 4 lane stretches in areas with 2 wheeler traffic, and areas with shops, markets and hotels directly opening on to the highway, and highways without LHS dividers separating bilanes.

Actually there is no point in listening to these primetime debates. They carry zero value. This looks like a road rage incident. The biker brake checked the bus forgetting that he is riding only a two wheeler. The bus driver should be punished for murder.

[Samba]

So an inflated ego with a temporary burst of anger led to a couple of deaths.
This accident has no justification, as it's not an accident, it looks intentional.
Though I believe, the bus driver wouldn't have wanted this as an outcome, he may have tried to bully the bike & this happened. I still believe there is some humanity left!
Still whatever may be the reason, the bus driver should be severely punished, this kind of driving has no justification. Period.

@harimkd you have done a great job. Kudos to you.

[MSAneesh]

Originally Posted by harimkd

Hope justice will prevail.

An extremely disturbing incident and video. Two young lives lost!
I shudder to think we share the road with such people.

Hari, your dashcam definitely helped bring in justice. Else, the whole world would have blamed those youths.

[Keeleri_Achu]

As others already pointed out, this is just cold blooded murder. Sadly I don't share the enthusiasm when it comes to justice being served. As per media reports, the driver was immediately let out on bail after arrest. This can only mean the intervention from the notorious KSRTC union. The driver would only be charged with frivolous sections from the IPC and in all probability will walk out without even as much as a slap on the wrist. I really hope I'm proven wrong though.

[GKR9900]

Watching this disturbing video of cold blooded murder makes my blood boil As a Keralite I have come across quite a few circumstances where I had to deal with these notorious KSRTC drivers. Even today I was bullied by a KSRTC bus off the road. Lessons learnt from a previous altercation (where the bus driver deliberately rammed into my car with vengeance, detailed here (Dangerous tiff with a KSRTC driver and walking away with a heavy loss + heavy heart) in team bhp) meant that I had to swallow my ego and make way for the bus. But it has been only a few days since this incident involving the 2 boys occurred and it scares me to think what kind of value these morons give to human life. Agreed not all KSRTC drivers are bad, but there are a sizeable chunk who thinks they're above the law due to strong unionisation and government payroll. I hope the mods can take a call based on the video and the upcoming news where police and media agrees that this is NOT an accident, but a deliberate act of murder and change the title so as to reveal the nature of this crime to the public.

[jkrishnakj]

I saw this two days back and it did trouble me quite a bit. This is a deliberate act that led to two youths losing their life. The driver is already out on bail I hear.

I really wish the driver gets a very very harsh punishment that can serve as a deterrent to all those rouge bus drivers in Kerala.

[SS-Traveller]

This is no accident as the title says. This tragic incident is an act of cold-blooded murder by the bus driver, fueled by road rage and frustration.

The biker had been obstructing the progress of the bus for some distance, and can be glimpsed to be leading the bus in the middle of the lane, even as the driver fruitlessly tries to weave his way past and overtake the biker. No reason for the biker to be in front of the bus, when there is plenty of road space for him to slow down and let the larger vehicle go past.

Once he (the bus driver) starts to overtake the truck, the biker leads him, and suddenly slows down ahead of the bus. One can see the bike's brake light glow bright, even as the bus too brakes hard and his brake lights come on too (there is no obstruction ahead, and both lanes are clear - so obviously, the biker was harassing the bus driver). In desperation (and certainly in cold blood), the bus driver thought he would nudge the biker out of his way into the path of the truck, and speed away, even as the truck may or may not run over the biker and take the blame for the crash. His calculation went very wrong, the bike was trapped between the two large vehicles, and we see the result.

The biker started the process of his own (and his pillion rider's) death by infuriating the bus driver to have a bit of fun. Yet, an experienced State Transport bus driver is not expected to lose his cool and attempt to murder someone just because he is not getting to maintain speed (and his arrival schedule). Even if he is not charged with attempt to murder, his licence to drive should be suspended permanently, since he is psychologically unstable, and a menace on the road.

Road safety in India will never move from ministerial promises to reality until people like these are debarred from getting behind the wheel.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by harimkd

The bike was a KTM duke, and naturally, everyone thought that it was the fault of bikers with a combination of “sports bike” and younger rider.

I had posted this theory on the Accidents thread where this was first reported. I'm not suprised to find that this is in fact true.

The amount of judgement that floats around KTM bikes are just pathetic. It's the rider not the ride.

I ride a KTM too. And I worry if something like this happens to me and I didn't have the dying proof with me, my family would just think it was my mistake. Or worse yet, their fault. I can't wrap my head around that fact.

[SR-71]

I have said this in the past and I will say this again, rash driving of bus in Kerala has reached endemic proportions. I have put in enough kilometers across all the four southern states and I can say, its downright scary when it comes to dealing with bus drivers in Kerala be it public or private ones compared to any other state. The authorities seem to be least bit worried about taking actions to put this to rest. The family should sue KSRTC for this.