Once again, call centre cab the culprit

NEW DELHI: One student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Lawrence Road, died and four others were injured when a call centre cab hit a Maruti van taking them to school.
They were rushed to hospital by two police constables standing at a PCO booth nearby.
Like his deceased brother, Sachin has received brain injuries. "He underwent a brain surgery after the accident and has been put on ventilator," said H P Singh, medical superintendent, Max Hospital, Netaji Subhash Place.The other children — Vibha Aggarwal (12), Sakshi Aggarwal (11) and Shubham Sharma (12) — have been discharged. Van driver Naveen also sustained head injuries and is admitted to Ambedkar Hospital.
The children are all residents of a JJ cluster in Shakurpur and were going to school in a private van hired by their parents. The police have arrested Rohit (23), the driver of the call centre cab, and booked him for causing death by rash and negligent driving and seized the car.
Call centre cabs have become a menace in the city with the traffic police failing to rein them in. Many of these cabs have to cover great distances at odd hours for dropping employees. To complete their trips quickly, many of these SUV cabs are driven rashly, posing a serious threat to other road users.
The Kendriya Vidyalaya has declared a holiday on Tuesday. Said principal Kumud Srivastava, "The van was not a school vehicle but a private van which had been carrying children for many years. We don't have resources to run buses of our own."
With one child dead and another battling for his life in the ICU, Sunny's parents — father K K Singh, a CBI head constable and mother Urmila — were completely devastated. "The van picked up both my sons around 6.20 am and barely half-an-hour later, I received a call from the hospital informing me of the accident. I asked my husband to cut short his trip to Mumbai and rushed to Max," said Urmila.