Empty school bus crushes four people to death

Four members of a family, including a woman and her two minor children were crushed to death by an empty school bus under the Elphinstone Road fly over bridge on Saturday.

“The deceased have been identified as Bhagubai Dattu Pawar, 48, her children Geeta Pawar, 15, and Deepak Pawar, one and half years and her niece Lata Popat Pawar, 8. They were killed on the spot,” said senior police inspector Ashok Unde of Dadar police station.

Police have arrested the cleaner Rakesh Kumar Shah, 19, who was driving the bus and the driver Mohammed Moosa Sheikh, 46, were booked under sections 120 (b)- conspiracy and 304 IPC. They will be produced before the holiday court on Sunday.

Hailing from Barshi in Solapur, Dattu Pawar was illegally living with his family under the under the bridge for the last several years. The family used to make flower garlands and sell them at the Dadar flower market.

The accident took place at 7.40 am when Shah boarded the empty bus (MH-04-G-9356) which was parked illegally under the fly over bridge and attempted to reverse it. He did not notice the Pawar family who were sleeping in that same area. It was only after other sleeping nearby started screaming for help did he realise that the bus had run over the family.

Dattu, the lone surviving member alleges that they had quarrelled with the duo on Friday night at around 11 pm over the illegal parking. The matter was settled but Dattu alleges that the duo killed his family to seek revenge.