3 schoolboys triple-riding on bike die in bus collision

RAIPUR: Three class 12 students, triple riding on a bike while returning from school, were killed in a head-on collision with a passenger bus at Dhamdha area of steel city Bhilai in Durg district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday evening.
Police identified the victims as Komal Sahu, Deepak Sahu and Chandrashekhar Sahu, all of them aged 17 and students of Dhamdha Government Higher Secondary School.They lived in Deori village.
According to police, the three friends were returning home after appearing in their quarterly exams when the bus hit them head-on while trying to overtake a car at a crossing just 5km from school. None of the boys was wearing a helmet. They died on the spot. After colliding with the bike, the bus went out of control and rammed into a roadside tree. However, none of the passengers was injured. Durg SP Abhishek Pallava told TOI that the bus driver has been taken into custody. The SP appealed to parents not to allow minors to drive vehicles as it could lead to accidents. According to Parivahan Sewa, the minimum age to apply for a driving licence for gearless vehicles is 16 years in India, and for a vehicle with gears, it’s 18 years. Driving without a licence and without knowledge of traffic rules and regulations is dangerous, the SP cautioned.