Two teenagers trapped under the wheels of a large public transport bus in India owe their lives to alert co-citizens. The teenagers who were trapped under the bus were freed by hundreds of onlookers who physically lifted the bus off the ground so that they could be rescued. The incident happened in the western Indian city of Pune, reports the Pune Mirror .
The incident happened on Friday, August 28, 2014 when the teenagers were standing in front of the bus near a traffic signal at a busy intersection. The bus driver who is likely to have not seen the teenagers ran over the two and dragged them along the road for some distance before coming to a halt. Onlookers reacted immediately to the accident and when it was seen that the two boys were trapped under the wheels, the group of people lifted the wheels of the bus off the ground and saved their lives. Both the teenagers were later taken to a local hospital where their condition has been reported to be stable. The local fire department also reacted immediately to an emergency call and responded within minutes. The bus was subsequently towed down to the local police station. The driver of the bus has been arrested as well.
The bus was operated by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamadal or PMPML (Marathi for Pune City Transportation Corporation) and was standing at the intersection known as Gyaneshwar Paduka Chowk.
FC Rd pune #ppl saved 2 bikers by lifting the bus # Hats off to PUNEKARS pic.twitter.com/u9BfdRgsLx
— Narendra A Patil (@Narendra_IRTS) September 1, 2014
The teenagers who were run over by the bus were later identified as Ashwin Doshi and Siddharth Dudu. Both the teenagers are students of local colleges. While Doshi hails from the city of Satara, Dudu is a native of the city of Solapur.
According to Dr Vaibhav Deshpande of Poona Hospital, Siddharth Dudu had received more injuries and was initially in a critical condition.
“His condition is stable now. He had injuries to his left lung as well as external injuries to the head, but he’s improving,” he said.
While investigations regarding the cause of the accident is still on, the bus driver Manik Waghmode, 51, who was arrested claimed that the accident had taken place due to a brake failure.
“There was a brake failure, and I lost control of bus. I have done five trips on the route and was on my sixth trip when accident occurred.”
Meanwhile the PMPML has also said that it would investigate of indeed the accident was caused due to a mechanical failure in the bus. The driver has undergone a check up to ascertain if he was drunk at the time of driving.
Meanwhile image showing the moment when onlookers lifted the bus off the ground to save the boys have gone viral. The incident is eerily similar to the accident that occurred in Perth, Australia a few weeks ago when a gentleman who was trapped in the gap between the platform and a train was rescued by people by tilting the train.
[Image Via Manoj Bidkar/ABP News]