Holding placards, more than 2,000 students of St. Joseph’s College, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, laid siege to the private bus stand in the town on Tuesday in protest against the death of a fellow student in a road accident.
Laya (22), a final-year BCom student of the college, was fatally hit by a speeding bus while she was on her way to college on a scooter with her father on Monday. Her father, Davis Kuruveetil of Vallachira who sustained serious injuries in the incident, is undergoing treatment at a hospital.
The agitating students blocked buses for almost an hour. They said Laya was “a victim of dangerous competition between buses.”
Raising slogans against “deadly competition of private buses,” the students, wearing black badges bearing a photograph of Laya, took out a procession from the college to the Irinjalakuda bus stand. Classmates of Laya walked on the front row carrying banners. The students then staged a sit-in in front of the bus stand gates.
The students also sought to create awareness among passengers and bus crew about the dangers of speeding, requesting bus staff to stop overspeeding. After an hour of protest, they returned to the college.
Expressing solidarity with the students, Minister for Higher Education R. Bindu directed buses and other heavy vehicles to control speed for the safety of the public.
Recently, a 19-year-old student on her way to an coaching centre on scooter was fatally hit by a bus along the Thrissur-Kozhikode route at Punkunnam in Thrissur.
