Bus driver caught drunk behind wheels in Kovai, passengers force vehicle to halt

The driver, identified as Sathish Kumar was in such an inebriated state that he almost dozed off even after the angry passengers forced him to halt the bus. 

The bus, bound to Erode district started off from Coimbatore Central Bus Terminus at 1.45 pm on Tuesday. One of the passengers said that from the very start, Kumar didn’t have control over the bus and was just short of ramming into other vehicles. 

The passengers screamed at him to be careful but to no avail. Growing suspicious that he was drunk, they forced the conductor to ask the driver to halt the bus.   When the bus was stopped along Avinashi Road near Anna statue signal, the driver was found to be so under the influence of alcohol that he couldn’t even leave his seat.    

The passengers alighted and took other buses and rental vehicles to reach their destinations. Meanwhile, Traffic Investigation Wing (TIW) sleuths, who reached the spot, confirmed that the driver was drunk after performing the breath analyser test. He was then taken to the police station and the bus was seized. Police said his licence would be cancelled and further action would be initiated.

In a similar incident in Tirupur district, a farm labourer was killed. Police said Chinnasamy, 48, of Mosavampalayam village, was returning from Palladam in a private bus from Coimbatore-Dharapuram. “While the bus tried to negotiate barricades, Chinnasamy lost his grip on the footboard and was thrown off. He was rushed to Palladam Government Hospital, but died on the way,” an officer said.  Kamanaickenpalayam police have registered a case and further inquiries are on.