Officials from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) stated on Tuesday that they believe a “human error” and “lack of proper training” were the causes of the terrible disaster in Kurla, Mumbai, when a BEST bus killed seven people and injured forty-two more. An investigating team from the Wadala RTO discovered that the brakes on the Olectra-made electric bus were functioning properly shortly after the incident on Monday night. At approximately 9:30 p.m. on Monday, the e-bus belonging to the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) project collided with cars and pedestrians on Kurla’s S G Barve Marg (West).
The 54-year-old driver of the doomed bus, Sanjay More, was eventually taken into custody. A few hours after the event, a Wadala RTO crew arrived at the scene. This morning, the bus inspection at BEST’s Kurla depot was finished by the RTO team under the direction of motor vehicle inspector Bharat Jadhav. The bus was moved from the accident scene at 12.30 am by BEST administration with assistance from Mumbai police, and it was transferred to Kurla depot at approximately 1.15 am, according to officials. Motor vehicle inspectors typically examine automobiles in accordance with established protocols; however, because of the seriousness of the occurrence, deputy RTO Pallavi Kothawade arrived in Kurla accompanied by other officers.
Contact attempts with Kothawade and Wadala RTO Ravi Gaikwad were futile. According to Maharashtra Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar, the RTO team has looked into the bus; however, the Olectra engineers’ report is still pending.
“Our team has investigated the bus as per the set Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for inspecting the bus,” he said, adding that they will submit their investigation report to the Mumbai police.
When the RTO team inspected the bus, they discovered that the brakes were operating properly, according to an RTO official who wished to remain anonymous. But after completing their inquiry report, they want to look into a few more things, so they’ve asked BEST and Olectra for some information.
At first, it was thought that the accident might have been caused by brake failure. Driver More’s family also claimed that brake failure could have led to the incident. He didn’t drink, according to the family members as well. According to the official, the bus driver was likely not properly trained before being allowed to operate the 12-meter-long bus, and it appears that he lacked experience operating the automatic transmission bus without a clutch or gear like the other buses.
“If a driver doesn’t have experience driving an automatic transmission bus, he doesn’t get proper judgment of acceleration and braking initially. Hence, it seems human error may have caused the accident,” he said.
“The brakes and all other systems, including the bus’s headlights, were found to be operating fine during RTO’s inspection of the accident-struck bus,” the official continued. According to RTO sources, the electric bus was only three months old when it was registered on August 20, 2024, under the name EVEY TRANS. The driver was provided by a third-party service situated in Pune.
RTO authorities claim that the inspection crew examined all three of the CCTV cameras mounted inside the bus, and their footage indicates that the entire ordeal occurred in a mere 52–55 seconds. According to the BEST’s records, the driver had signed on duty on Monday at approximately 2.45 p.m., and the tragedy happened at approximately 9.35 p.m. “The entire horror has happened within 52-55 seconds,” an official stated.
According to the RTO officials, the e-bus travelled 400–450 meters since it collided with the first car and then struck the compound wall of a housing society on S G Barve Road on its way from Kurla Station West to Sakinaka. According to RTO officials, the driver may have accelerated in a panic after the bus collided with the first car, hitting everything in its path until slamming into the society wall.
According to the driver’s duty records, he began working on November 29, 2024, and on December 1st, he was assigned to operate the electric bus. Regarding the driver’s training, the BEST administration and his family have offered conflicting claims.
Anil Diggikar, the BEST General Manager, told reporters that More received three days of induction training, whereas Deep More, his son, said that his father received nine to ten days of instruction before being assigned to operate the electric bus. The police have not yet provided RTO teams with the specifics of his driver’s license.
More has been operating the wet-leased 7 to 9-meter Tempo Traveller minibuses in BEST’s fleet since November 2020, according to BEST records. However, he had no prior experience operating a 12-meter electric bus because he had previously worked for M P Group before joining Daga Group, which recently removed its approximately 280 minibuses from BEST’s fleet.
A retired RTO official said that the automatic transmission electric buses and manual transmission fossil fuel buses have different mechanisms. Hence, it takes some time for the drivers to get used to driving them.
“It is a human error probably caused by lack of knowledge,” the retired official said. The driver perhaps did not have proper knowledge as automatic transmission electric buses do not have air-assisted braking systems, he added.
