Neglect to ailing passenger: Bus conductor booked

KOCHI: The Kochi City Police on Tuesday booked the conductor of a private bus for negligence in providing timely medical aid to a person who suffered a cardiac arrest during the bus journey.

According to police officers, a case under IPC section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) has been registered against Bijoy Antony, 36, of Keezhmadu, the bus conductor.

The move came following a preliminary investigation, which revealed that the accused had failed to ensure timely medical help to the unconscious man.

The incident happened on Saturday when 40-year-old T K Lakshmanan, a native of Sultan Bathery and an employee of a hotel here, fell unconscious soon after he boarded the bus to Palarivattom from Maharaja's College Ground. However, the bus continued to proceed from Shenoy's Junction despite the request of a fellow passenger to rush the patient to the nearest hospital.

A statement of the fellow passenger said the bus crew did not heed his request and continued the trip up to Edapally. As the protests by fellow passengers intensified, the crew asked the co-passenger to take the affected to the hospital and dropped them at Edapally, nearly eight km away.

The complainant with the help of a traffic warden at Edapally rushed him to a hospital where he died later.
The hospital authorities too gave a statement to the police that the victim could have been saved had he been administered treatment in a timely manner.

However, nearly 45 minutes had passed when he was finally admitted to a hospital. The cops will now be initiating steps to seize the bus, plying in the Fort Kochi-Aluva route. The Motor vehicles Department has already cancelled the conductor's licence for six months. Meanwhile, investigations revealed that the driver had come to know about the ailing passenger much later.