Nadapuram: As many as 48 school children were stranded on the road near Nadapuram on Tuesday evening when the driver of their bus abandoned the vehicle after he spotted officers of the motor vehicles department. The bus was filled way beyond its capacity of 17 passengers and lacked a safety certificate, the officers said.
The driver of the mini bus panicked when he spotted the inspectors on the road. He jumped out of his seat and ran away, leaving the bus and the children in the middle of the road. The motor vehicle inspectors later dropped all the students home.
The inspectors were out to penalise safety violations in vehicles carrying school students when the bus that belonged to the Thanakoottoor Upper Primary School came their way. The bus was visibly overcrowded. It had also defaulted on road tax after December and its safety certificate had expired in May.
The bus was taken to the Nadapuram police station. Though the representatives of the school management went to the police station, the officers refused to release the bus until the driver turned up.
The motor vehicles department team included A R Rajesh, T K Ajil Kumar and V I Aseem.
