'We tried to stop the Pune rampage'

Amar Chavan and Ganesh Nanajkar will remember January 25 for the rest of their lives with shock and revulsion.

It is not every day that you come close to stopping a rampage. Chavan and Nanajkar, along with two other trainee drivers of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), Dayanand Rokadewad and Chetan Chopade, tried to stop the ill-fated bus which Santosh Mane had taken out of the Swargate state transport terminus on Wednesday morning.

The trainees had reported for duty. Between 7.30 and 7.45 am they saw the bus drive down from the Swargate bus station. “The bus was on the wrong side of the road and hit the handcarts full of fruit. The bus roared on towards the Hotel Seven Loves Chowk and hit two 2-wheelers and a parked Xylo vehicle,” Chavan said.

They tried to stop the bus. “I climbed onto the bus and tried to pull the hand brake to stop the bus. But realising my intention, Mane pushed me hard and I fell from the bus,” he said.

The bus sped away towards Hotel Seven Loves’ Chowk.

“We tried to chase the bus, but it sped away fast. Later, with the help of our colleagues Vishwanath Gadi, Devidas Wagh and Pradeep Madane we helped the victims and kept the traffic going in the area,” he said.

PMPML public relations officer, Deepaksingh Pardeshi said, “Since they are trainee drivers, they knew how to control the bus and showed the presence of mind and asked the driver to pull the hand brake, but to no avail.”