Kerala school van mishap: Driver was at wheels, not cleaner, say kids

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It took almost 24 hours for the police to confirm who drove the ill-fated school van. But four-year-old Sobin and ten-year-old Hima have no doubts.

“It was Jeen chettan (Jiferson) who drove the van,” confirms Sobin Netto, an LKG student, who was sitting next to the driver while the van plunged into the Parvathyputhenar canal at Channankara on Monday afternoon.

Pointing towards a plot opposite to the canal, Sobin narrates: “A black dog crossed the jumped to the road from this compound. Suddenly Jeen chettan turned the steering and the van fell into the canal after hitting on a stone,” he says with clarity.

The police pass the buck on the media for framing the cleaner of the van, 19-year-old Shibin Xavier, as the first-accused.

“It was a section of the media that flashed the news that the cleaner drove the van. This forced the local people to give statement against the cleaner,” justifies Kazhakuttom circle-inspector C. Binukumar who is probing into the tragedy.

“Now we are almost sure that Jiferson drove the vehicle and hence he will be made the first accused,” he added.

Alike Sobin, Hima, who was the last to alight the van before it met with the mishap, and Neethu, a B. Tech student of the locality, who spotted the van minutes before it plunged into the canal too have no doubts that Jiferson drove the vehicle.

Hima, a fifth-standard student at the Jyoti Nilayam school, who is yet to recover from the shock recalls: “After dropping Sona, Anju, Benson, Rohan and Vidya at various spots, the van reached my house. I am sure that Jeen chettan was driving the van.”

The mishap took place hardly a few metres away from her house.

Victims still traumatised

The school children who had a narrow escape in the boat mishap at Chanankkara on Tuesday, are not fully in the clear as doctors are watching them for any lung and neurological complications that may set in as a result of the accident.

Doctors at the SAT Hospital say the children have been put on anti-biotic support to protect them from pneumonia and water borne diseases as they have been exposed to the highly polluted waters of the Parvathy Puthanar.

They clearly dont want to take any chances with the children as Irfan who survived the Karikkakom mishap in February, has developed a neurological complication and is still in coma at the CMC Vellore.

All precautions are being taken when treating the children as when the flow of air is restricted to the lungs it lowers the level of oxygen in the blood and restricts its flow.

Aware that such complications can lead to neurological problems, the doctors are doing everything they can to safeguard the children involved in Tuesday's school van mishap.