Rajhmundary, June 20: Barely 24 hours after a school bus crushed a little girl, Ayesha, to death in Vijaywada, a similar incident unfolded in nearby Rajahmundry on Saturday. This time, six-year-old Allu Naga Mounika, a Class I student, of Sudha’s Mullard Talent School, lost her life.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred when Mounika was getting down from the school van at her house at Morampudi junction around 12:30 PM. The driver, like most of his ilk, did not wait for the girl to get down and pressed the accelerator with the result that she fell down and came under the vehicle’s rear wheels. She died on the spot.
There was neither an attendant nor a cleaner in the school van. The driver too was reportedly inexperienced.
The girl’s father Allu Ganapathi is a daily wage labourer. She was the second daughter in the family. Ganapathi told Express he had lodged complaints with the school management several times that there was no attendant in the van to accompany the students. But the management did not respond, he alleged. School owner Sudhakar claimed it was only on Saturday that the attendant did not turn up for duty.
Bommur subinspector E Satyanarayana arrested van driver P Sattiraju. Satyanarayana said action would also be initiated against the school management.
–Agencies