Survivors of Kurla bus crash recount horror

SOP mandates six weeks of training for scaling up, but driver Sanjay More trained for just three days

- Shashank Rao and Vinay Dalvi

MUMBAI: Sanjay More, 54, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) driver who has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder by the police for ramming into several pedestrians and 22 vehicles in Kurla on Monday, resulting in the death of seven and injury to 42, had transitioned from driving a manual bus to an electric bus after training for just three days.

More started driving the 12-metre-long Olectra-make e-bus - the longest in the BEST fleet - from December 1. Before this, he had driven a six-metre-long bus for four years.

Putting More behind the wheel of an e-bus within a limited time after driving a manual bus was in defiance of the transport utility's internal SOP, a BEST source told HT. Bus drivers need to go through six weeks of refresher training before they are allowed to scale up. "However, this is just on paper. While new drivers get trained for 15 days, refresher courses go on for three days only, which More undertook," said a BEST official.

This was corroborated by the Kurla police as well, whose primary investigation revealed that More "had only driven manual, geared diesel vehicles till December 1".

Additionally, More was for the first time manoeuvring an advanced vehicle, which was running on a power of 3000 NM (Newton Meters), as opposed to a diesel bus' 390 to 450 NM. HT has learnt from sources that this make of the Olectra C9 bus has two motors on either side, which gives the vehicle an extra thrust and power. It is akin to upgrading from a basic hatchback to a luxury car with better and faster engines, among other improved features.