School bus driver using bamboo stick as gear hits car, held
Mumbai, Feb 7: 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 Podar 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.
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Air India Express cancels flights due to cabin crew shortage: Sources
New Delhi (PTI): Air India Express has cancelled "scores of flights" due to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them are reporting sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline, according to sources.
Discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now, especially after the start of the process of merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.
The sources on Wednesday said several cabin crew members started reporting sick since Monday evening and as there are not enough cabin crew members, "scores of flights" have been cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Bangalore.
Late last month, a union representing a section of the Air India Express cabin crew alleged that the airline is being mismanaged and there is a lack of equality in the treatment of the staff.
Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), a registered union, which claims to represent around 300 cabin crew members, mostly seniors, had also alleged that mismanagement of the affairs has affected the morale of the employees.
Many passengers took to social media on Wednesday complaining about the sudden cancellation of flights.
In response to a passenger's post on X about flight cancellation, Air India Express apologised and said the flight was cancelled "due to operational reasons".
"As part of our service recovery process, you can either opt to reschedule the flight within the next 7 days or request a full refund through our chat bot Tia...," the airline said in a post on X.
The development at Air India Express comes a month after Tata Group full-service carrier Vistara witnessed pilot woes, forcing it to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent or 25-30 flights daily.
As part of consolidating its airline business, Tata Group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect, as well as Vistara with Air India.
