Police nab school bus driver who killed four-year-old

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The Chikkajala traffic police on Friday arrested the driver of a school bus that killed four-year-old Mohammed Fazal in Anjanadri Layout near Thanisandra on Thursday evening.

The boy, who turned four on June 15, was waiting to celebrate his birthday on Saturday as it is a weekend, when the driver’s negligence snuffed out his life.

Driver Bharath Singh had dropped Fazal, an LKG student at Bright School in Thanisandra, near his home on 3 Cross Ali Masjid Road in Anjanadri Layout. Singh reversed the vehicle without noticing the boy standing close to the vehicle.

The bus door, which had not been latched properly, swung out hitting Fazal in the face. The boy collapsed. A scared Singh put Fazal into the bus and sped away along with 10 other students in the vehicle.

When Singh noticed that the boy was unconscious, he stopped the bus in the middle of the road, locked the vehicle and fled. People passing by noticed the young children inside the bus and broke open the doors. They rushed Fazal to a nearby hospital where he died after a few minutes.

Why was driver so cruel to my boy: Mother

“If the driver had taken my son straight to the hospital, he would have survived. Why did he drive around for more than two hours without bothering about the condition of Fazal? He could have left my injured child in front of our house and then fled. Why was he so cruel to us?” Fazal’s mother Faima Banu said.

“This driver was always arrogant and careless. Whenever he dropped Fazal, he would just throw his bag out of the bus and he would start to move,” she said.

Banu said that her neighbour Babu, who saw the accident, informed her. They chased the school bus, but could not catch up. Later, they searched all hospitals and clinics, but could not trace Fazal.

“We went to the school and enquired with a few teachers about the driver’s whereabouts but they refused to give us any information. Later in the evening, the police called to tell us that Fazal had been admitted to the hospital and he died of his injuries,” said Banu.

The inconsolable mother said the school authorities have to be blamed as the driver was attached to the school. “I need justice. Shut down the school. This week, I visited the school three times to ensure that my son was safe.

The school had said that children are safe and they had enough maids to take care of the children. But in reality, they did not even feed my child properly.

“Fazal was my only son and now I have lost him,” said Banu Fazil’s father Noorulhaq said, “ It is not an accident but a murder. The police should charge the bus driver with murder and take action. I want justice. I lost my only son because of the negligence of the school management”.