Daijiworld Media Network - Koppal (SP)

Koppal, Mar 3: In an incident that can be described as a cruel quirk of fate, a child which was trying to attract the attention of its father, a bus driver by profession, got crushed under the wheels of the same bus. This incident happened at Vidyanagara, Gangavathi in the district.

The father of the child, identified as K Channabasappa, works as driver of a school bus. As usual, he came home for lunch in the afternoon with his bus on Thursday March 2. At that time, his family members had visited a nearby temple where a religious programme was in progress. Channabasappa's wife, Vedavati, was standing near the temple with her son, 18-month-old Niranjan.

When the school bus driven by Channabasappa came that way, Niranjan who saw his father, got excited. To attract his father's attention and to speak to him, he ran behind the bus.

Channabasappa had not noticed that his son was calling him and following the bus. He moved the bus on reverse gear after which the child was crushed under the rear wheels of the bus. Alerted by the sound, Channabasappa got down from the bus and was devastated at the sight of the crushed body of his small child.

Vedavati said that she and her husband had planned to bring a big two-kg cake on the second birthday of their son to distribute it among the children of the locality. She said the god had other ideas and robbed them of the happiness in a cruel way. This was the second child of the couple. The couple remained inconsolable after the accident.

The rural police, who registered the case as an inadvertent accident, have taken over possession of the bus.