MUMBAI: A 55-year-old man succumbed to injuries on Monday morning at Sion Hospital, raising the fatality count to eight in the BEST bus incident that occurred in Kurla area, a civic official said.
The incident on December 9 involved an electric bus, operated under wet-lease by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), which crashed into pedestrians on a busy Kurla street, causing seven immediate fatalities and leaving 42 others wounded. The collision also resulted in damage to multiple vehicles.
The latest casualty, Fazlu Rehman, was receiving treatment at Sion Hospital before his death on Monday morning, confirmed an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
BEST has established a five-member investigative panel to examine the Kurla incident.
The police have detained driver Sanjay More (54) for alleged negligent driving.
A statement released last week by BEST announced that Chief Manager (Transport) Ramesh Madavi would lead the investigative committee.
The organisation committed to providing Rs 2 lakh compensation to each bereaved family and assured coverage of medical expenses for the injured.
According to BEST administration, More underwent three days of training before operating the electric bus.
RTO officials believe the accident, considered one of the most severe BEST-related incidents in recent times, might have resulted from human error and insufficient training in handling automatic transmission vehicles.
