NEW DELHI: It seems the spate of road accidents which have been the landmark of Delhi roads for quite a sometime now shows no signs of going down. In the past week or so Delhi have witnessed a spate of road accidents involving Blueline buses aka the” killer line” which led to protests by the public. This forced the Delhi government to act tough but the bus operators have some other ideas as they took almost the entire fleet of the roads making the lives of bus commuters miserable. At last some kind of consensus was reached between government and bus operators when government threatened to invoke ESMA. In the meeting Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit asked Blueline operators to develop a discipline code and warned them about zero tolerance towards road accidents, Bluelines were back in their elements — this time with a DTC bus for company.

Since Saturday night one person has been killed and four others have been injured in three separate accidents in the city involving two blueline buses – one of them being driven by a helper, and one DTC bus. The accident involving the DTC proved to be fatal as it knocked down a motorcyclist at Peera Garhi Chowk.

In the first accident a Blueline bus plying between Narela and Old Delhi railway station hit a motorcycle at Narela-Sanghu border on Saturday night head-on. According to Delhi police officials "Three youths were riding the motorcycle without helmets. As it was a head-on collision, all the riders were badly injured. They were first rushed to a private hospital, from where they were later referred to Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan hospital".

The injured persons in this accident have been identified as Dhanpat, Ved Prakash and Gulab of Fatihabad in Sonepat district, Haryana. Relatives said that the three had come to meet a friend at Narela. The accident happened on their way back near Neeltara farmhouse. Doctors at LNJP had to operate two of the three injured. The police has arrested driver Satpala and impounded the bus.

In another accident, a Blueline bus plying between Mangolpuri and New Delhi Railway Station hit an autorickshaw in B-block, Magolpuri. According to the cops, the bus was driven by the helper at the time of the accident, in violation of rules. "The helper was driving the bus early in the morning. The accused Raju has been arrested and the bus has also been impounded," said a police official.

In the fatal accident which claimed the life of a motorcyclist, a DTC bus hit a motorcycle near Super Bazar at Peera Garhi crossing early on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as a resident of Madipur village. "We would soon arrest the driver," a police official said.

With most government offices remaining closed on Saturday the traffic situation on the city roads was normal. Around 2,600 DTC buses were on the roads and many were seen plying almost empty. Bluelines were back on the roads in large numbers.