Agra: A first-grade student died on Wednesday afternoon after plunging through a hole in the floor of a moving school bus in Uttar Pradesh.
The victim, identified by police as Naina, was a student at the private RBS School. The fatal incident occurred around 3 p.m. as the bus was ferrying children to their homes in the Etmadpur region.
According to Aditya Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), the bus was in a state of severe disrepair. "The floor of the school bus was broken, and a nine-year-old girl Naina, slipped through the floor and was crushed to death under the wheels of the bus," Singh stated.
Witnesses and family members alleged that the school had attempted to patch a corroded section of the floor with a wooden plank rather than performing proper repairs. When the vehicle hit a speed breaker near Biharipur, the jolt reportedly caused the plank to shift, creating a gap that the child fell through.
Other students on the bus, including Naina's elder sister, raised an immediate alarm. While the driver eventually halted the vehicle, he reportedly fled the scene shortly thereafter.
"The driver and the administrators of the school are absconding," Singh added, noting that an FIR has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for rash driving and causing death by negligence.
The tragedy comes less than two weeks after a nearly identical accident in the neighbouring Aligarh district, where a seven-year-old girl also died after falling through a decayed bus floor. In response to the latest fatality, regional transport officials have initiated a campaign to inspect the fitness of all school vehicles in the district and have recommended that RBS School's recognition be revoked.
With inputs from PTI