Jaipur: A day after the Sawai Madhopur tragedy in which 33 passengers were killed after a bus plunged into Banas River, the forensic experts and the police on Sunday said rash-driving caused the bus to plunge off the bridge over Banas River on Saturday morning. They have also said that impact on the bus and skid marks on the bridge suggest that speed of the bus was on or above 70 kms/hour.
A team of officials from Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) from Jaipur along with local police on Sunday morning visited the spot and went into collecting minor and finer evidences to ascertain the speed of the vehicle and also causes of the accident
"The markings of the bus tyres on the bridge clearly state that the driver was aiming to overtake the bus from right side. The tyre marks are going straight and suddenly swerve right with a curve of about 90 degrees which indicates the driver lost control in seconds," Maman Singh Yadav, superintendent of police, Sawai Madhopur told TOI on Sunday.
The vehicle's trajectory hints that while the driver took a curve towards right, speed could not be controlled which resulted in its plunging into the river," said Maman Singh Yadav.
The 25-seater bus, owned by a private operator was overloaded as it was carrying nearly 40 passengers. "The bus had traversed halfway through the 498 meter-long bridge, when at 6.30 am the bus skidded to the right upto 23 meters and hit the railings. Impact is ascertained with the fact that 7-feet long portion of railing was damaged in the crash," said an officer with the FSL examining the spot.
Deputy SP Subash Chandra Mishra who was facilitating the FSL team, talking to TOI, said, "We spoke to some PWD engineers who suggested that these bridges have shock absorbers to sustain tremors which often makes it to bend and slide. On these bridges if the speed is higher and exceeds a limit of 50 kms/hour the vehicle gets bumps which can make the steering a bit shaky."
FSL team also took the damaged marks to depict that the bus damaged seven-foot width of the barriers and fell. The police have taken the samples including measurements and photographs for the bridge and the damaged bus.
