We tried to stop him in vain: Trainee drivers

Amar Chavan and Ganesh Nanajkar will remember January 25 for the rest of their lives with shock. It is not every day that you come close to death.

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. After 8pm, they saw the bus drive down from the Swargate bus station. “The bus was on the wrong side of the road and hit handcarts full of fruit, smashing them into pieces. The bus roared on towards Hotel Seven Loves Chowk and hit two 2-wheelers and a parked Xylo,” Chavan said.
It dawned on them that things were wrong and 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 off,” he said.

The bus sped away towards Hotel Seven Loves’ Chowk.
“We tried to chase the bus, but it sped away. Later, with the help of our colleagues Vishwanath Gadi, Devidas Waugh and Pradeep Madane we helped the victims and kept the traffic going in the area.”

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