CHENNAI: A Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus hit a 15-year-old schoolgirl, killing her on the spot, in Mylapore on Friday morning. The driver sped away but police arrested him two hours later.

Police said G Ganga Devi, 15, was riding pillion on a moped, with her brother G Vigneshwaran giving her a ride to school to attend a special class, when an MTC bus plying between Chromepet and Broadway (H-51) hit the two-wheeler from behind at 9am. They fell from the moped and the bus ran over Devi.

The Mylapore police sent the body to Government Royapettah Hospital for postmortem and registered a case under IPC Section 304 (a) (death caused due to negligent driving) against the bus driver, B Ilayarajah, 38, a resident of Gandhi Nagar in Chromepet.

A friend, M Suganthi, said Devi was a class topper. "She always told us she was studying hard to help her family," another friend, S Pavithra, said.

Devi's mother G Vijaya works as a maid in houses in Kotturpuram. Her father Ganesan died of blood cancer a few years ago. A family friend, Dhanasekar, said it was a struggle for Vijaya to raise her children and Devi's death was a cruel blow.

Vijaya's son Vigneshwaran is a student of BBA. The family lives in a Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board house in Kotturpuram, police said.

MTC buses cause more fatal accidents than any other public transport utility in the country. More than 100 people die in road accidents involving MTC buses every year. Chennai records around 1,300 deaths in road accidents each year, with MTC buses accounting for almost 10% of the fatalities despite its fleet of 3,500 buses making up just 0.1% of all motor vehicles in the city.

Going by MTC's procedures, driver Ilayarajah will be back at his job in six months. "He will be put in Gummidipoondi for a refresher course which includes driving on a simulator. Once he is back on the job, he will not be on the same route," an official said.

MTC bus drivers almost never go to jail because they are public servants. The transport corporation simply suspends those involved in fatal accidents, sends them for refresher courses and allows them to return to the job within six months.

Source: TOI