School bus driver held for using bamboo stick as gear lever after hitting car

Mumbai: A 22-year-old driver, who was operating a bus using a bamboo stick as gear lever, was arrested after his vehicle carrying school students hit a car in Mumbai, a police official said on Thursday.

No injury or casualty was reported in the mishap.

Raj Kumar was driving the bus to Poddar International School located in Khar suburb on Wednesday when the vehicle hit the high-end car of a businessman, the official said.

The angry businessman then confronted the driver for causing damage to his car.

When two policemen arrived at the spot, Kumar blamed the steering wheel of his bus for the mishap, he said.

The car owner and the policemen then went inside the bus and they were shocked to see the bamboo stick in place of the gear lever, he said.

Kumar, who was subsequently arrested for negligent driving, told the police that the bus gear knob had broken some days back and since then he was using the bamboo stick as gear lever, the official said.

“All the students inside the bus were safe,” he said.

The driver was later produced in a local court which granted him bail, he said, adding that a probe was underway into the incident.