India, July 11 -- Four people were injured, one of them seriously, after a privately operated BEST bus went out of control and rammed into 14 vehicles while negotiating a turn on the congested SV Road on Friday.

While the bus driver, Sahil Sawant, 30, claimed that the brakes had failed, the police and the public transport undertaking said they were investigating whether a mechanical defect, human error or another factor caused the crash.

The accident once again puts the spotlight on BEST's wet-lease model, which has come under scrutiny following a series of crashes involving privately-operated buses running on behalf of the undertaking. HT could not immediately ascertain which wet-lease operator owned the bus involved in Friday's accide...