An eight-year-old DPS student died after being crushed between her school van and a wall in Prayagraj. The driver did not realise what had happened.
An eight-year-old girl student was run over by a school van in Prayagraj. The driver did not even realise what had happened. After hearing her cries, people pulled her out from under the vehicle and took her to hospital, where she died. The girl studied in Class 3 at Delhi Public School.
After the accident, people in the area caught the school van driver. They locked him inside the vehicle and handed him over to the police. The girl’s mother fainted as soon as she saw her body. The accident took place at 3:30 PM on Thursday in the Naini police station area of Prayagraj.
Taswani Udyansi Pathak, who lived in Prayag Puram in the Naini area, was a student at Delhi Public School. Her father, Manish Kumar Pathak, works in a private job in Delhi, while her mother, Aarti Dubey, is a government school teacher in Gorakhpur. She is currently home on leave. Udyansi was the only child of her parents.
As both her parents worked outside the city, she lived with her paternal grandparents, Suresh Pathak and Kadambini Pathak. Suresh Pathak originally belongs to Mirzapur but has now settled in Prayagraj. He retired as a section engineer. The family had arranged a van for the girl to travel to and from school.
The girl’s grandmother, Kadambini Pathak, said Udyansi got out of the van at the entrance to their house after returning from school. She was taking her schoolbag out of the van and was standing near the wall when her bag got stuck in the vehicle. The driver reversed at high speed, hitting the girl and throwing her against the wall. She became trapped between the van and the wall.
Blood was scattered at the spot after the accident. The family rushed the girl to hospital, where doctors declared her dead. When her body was brought home, the family broke down in grief. Her mother was inconsolable and fainted several times.
The girl’s uncle, Pushpendra Pathak, kept crying while holding her in his arms. He said the family lovingly called her Tashi. The previous day, she had visited the Dussehra fair with her family and bought many things. Today, she lost her life.
The family has been left devastated by the loss. The incident has raised serious questions about the safety of children travelling in school vans.