The tourist bus that caused Wednesday night’s ghastly accident at Anjumoorthy Mangalam near Vadakkanchery on the National Highway 544 was reportedly booked several times for violations of road laws. Transport authorities said there were five cases against the bus.
The bus was booked first for not paying the tax and using air horn. It was booked three times for fixing decoration lights illegally. The bus had reportedly ignored the warnings given by the Motor Vehicle Department.
The bus was also found to have tampered with the electronically speed controlling unit (ECU). When the manufacturer had fixed a speed ceiling of 80 kmph for the bus, it was found to have been running at 97.2 km speed when the accident took place on Wednesday night.
Minister for Local Administration and Excise M.B. Rajesh and Minister for Power K. Krishnankutty said that both the Motor Vehicle Department and the police would investigate the accident and the circumstances that led to it in an indepth manner.
“We will adopt stringent measures to prevent recurrence of such accidents,” said Mr. Rajesh.
“There will be no laxity in taking action against those responsible for this ghastly accident. It will be investigated seriously,” said Mr. Krishnankutty.
The Ministers visited the Government Hospital at Alathur, where the bodies of the victims were kept and post-mortems conducted. Along with V.K. Sreekandan, MP, and District Collector Mrunmai Joshi, the Ministers supervised the post-accident procedures, including speeding up of the post-mortem.
