An Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) shuttle bus allegedly driven by an intoxicated driver struck pedestrians near Jamalpur Pagathiya on Sunday, prompting residents to detain the driver and hand him over to police. The incident has renewed concerns about safety checks for drivers operating the city’s public transport fleet.
The bus was operating on Route No. 143 when it drove into a crowd of pedestrians, according to a report by the Times of India. No major injuries were reported, but the incident caused immediate alarm in the area. Residents surrounded the vehicle after the crash, apprehended the driver and took him to officers at Gaekwad Haveli Police Station.
The driver was arrested by the Traffic ‘E’ division. Police booked him under Section 281 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 177 and 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act, according to the report. Section 281 relates to rash driving or riding on a public way, while Section 184 addresses dangerous driving under the motor vehicle law.
The incident has also raised questions about how drivers are screened before they take municipal buses onto Ahmedabad’s roads. A public transport driver operates a vehicle carrying passengers and sharing road space with pedestrians, two-wheelers and other traffic. Any failure in pre-duty checks can therefore create risks beyond the bus itself.
Advocate Atik Sayyed, a Jamalpur resident, called for immediate legal action against the driver and urged the AMTS administration to suspend him. Sayyed also demanded that the driver be permanently dismissed from service if the allegations are established. “An FIR must be immediately registered and legal action taken against the accused driver under BNS and the Motor Vehicles Act for drunk driving and endangering citizens’ lives,” he said, according to the report.
Sayyed further called for mandatory alcohol breathalyser tests at all AMTS depots before buses are released onto routes. Such checks, he said, would help prevent drivers under the influence of alcohol from operating public vehicles.
The crash comes after several recent incidents involving allegations of drunken driving by AMTS personnel in Ahmedabad. The report said AMTS terminated 13 drivers in July, while the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System dismissed three drivers following a series of accidents and serious misconduct complaints.
Those earlier disciplinary actions indicate that the issue is not limited to a single collision, although the report does not establish whether the latest driver had previously faced disciplinary proceedings. It also does not specify whether a breathalyser test was conducted before or after the Jamalpur incident, or whether the driver’s employment status has since been changed.
The immediate proceedings will depend on the police investigation and the charges filed under the applicable laws. The incident has placed renewed attention on the actions AMTS takes after such cases and on whether alcohol screening is carried out systematically across its depots before buses begin daily operations.
