Cop among 2 crushed by speeding DTC bus

NEW DELHI: An allegedly speeding Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus swerved onto a pavement late on Monday night, killing a 24-year-old on-duty Delhi Police constable and a 23-year-old man, before crashing into a divider on Ring Road near Monastery Market in north Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

- HT Correspondent [e-mail]

Police confirmed that the bus was not carrying passengers at the time and was being operated by the driver while broken down, although the DTC has yet to verify this.

As the bus mounted the pavement, it collided with a billboard pole, dislodging the over seven-foot long structure and toppling it onto the busy Ring Road, obstructing traffic, police said.

The two men, constable Victor (who goes by a single name) and Satyapriya Singh, were killed instantly in the collision that took place at around 10.30pm, police said.

The driver of the bus, which was going from Sarai Kale Khan to Nand Nagri area, was arrested and is being questioned.

DTC officials said they are yet to confirm if the bus was not in an operational state and have initiated an investigation into the claim. The driver, Vinod Kumar, 57, has been working with DTC since 2010.

"We had received a number of PCR calls about the DTC bus accident in which two fatalities were reported. Outside the Monastery Market, we found that an uncontrolled DTC bus ran on the pavement. It first rammed into a billboard pole and broke it (from the base). It then hit two people. The bus later crossed the road and crashed into a divider," said deputy commissioner of police (north) Raja Banthia.