A Class X student suffered a fracture in his left leg and a deep wound in his left heel after he fell while trying to get off a moving bus, police said.
The accident on Monday morning happened close to Rishab Saha’s school off Rajdanga Main Road in south Kolkata’s Kasba.
Rishab’s father Mahadeb Saha told The Telegraph that his son told him that the conductor of the private bus asked the boy to get off even when the bus was moving.
The police have detained the driver and the conductor of the bus.
Police said Rishab, 15, a resident of Baroda Sarani in Haridevpur, was seen getting off a moving 3C/1 bus near his school.
“CCTV footage clearly shows that the bus was moving when the boy was trying to alight from it. He apparently slipped and lost grip on the handlebar and fell on the road,” said an officer of the traffic department.
Rishab was admitted to Ruby General Hospital, where his left leg was operated on on Tuesday afternoon.
Instances of passengers falling from buses while alighting from them are not uncommon in the city where buses neither stop at assigned stops nor allow enough time for passengers to board or get off the bus.
Buses on the same route often compete with each other and force passengers to get off in the middle of the road endangering their lives.
A large number of accidents that are reported on the city’s roads involve buses — private as well as government — and many of them result in fatalities.
Many Kolkatans complained that the police do little to prosecute buses that don’t follow basic traffic rules and act only when there is an accident.
Rishab, a Class X student, has been commuting by public transport for about a year, his family said.
“He takes an auto from Kudghat to the Rashbehari crossing, from where he boards a bus on his way to school. Unlike boys of his age, he never rushes. It is unlikely he would jump out of a moving bus on his own,” Rishab’s father said.
Rishab underwent surgery at Ruby hospital on Monday afternoon.
“The patient suffered a tibia fracture and a deep wound in his left heel. His fracture is expected to heal soon because of his age, but the chances of infection from the deep wound cannot be ruled out,” said orthopaedic surgeon Dipanjan Bhadra.
The deep wound appeared to have been caused by his fall on some sharp object, the doctor said. Rishab was also operated on by plastic surgeon Deepanjan Dey, hospital officials said.
Rishab’s maternal uncle Krishnendu Saha said: “By the time I reached the hospital, he was in the Emergency ward. His foot was heavily bandaged. But the bandage was wet with blood. He was in a lot of pain.”
Saha said he had lodged a complaint with Kasba police station.
The bus has been impounded. Officers at Kasba police station said they were in the process of registering a case against the driver and the conductor of the bus.
