Haphazardly drawn cables have yet again landed the Kochi Corporation in trouble with one such cable being suspected to have caused an accident, leaving a motorcyclist with serious injuries on Sunday night.
The incident occurred near the Vennala market in the Chakkaraparambu division around 8.45 p.m. Anilkumar, 47, a welding worker who sustained injuries, was returning to his rented home at Vennala when the accident occurred.
A CCTV image, which has since emerged, showed Anilkumar’s motorcycle getting caught in what seems to be a cable wound up on an electric post. It was seen projected outwards to the road at the level of the handle of the motorcycle. He could be seen getting thrown off the vehicle as soon as he passes the cable.
“The CCTV image will have to be closely examined to verify how the accident happened. It was a dead cable anyway. Dangerously hanging cables up to a certain area in the division have been cut by the Corporation health authorities. They have been asked to cover the remaining stretch at the earliest,” said division councillor K.B. Harshan.
Anilkumar, who was rushed to a nearby private hospital, was diagnosed with serious head injury, broken ribs, and heavy bleeding. He was put on ventilator immediately before being referred to the Kottayam Medical College Hospital where he was taken in an ambulance with ICU facilities.
“He [victim] used to bring food for a patient admitted in our hospital. That patient’s relatives who were at the hospital intervened and in consultation the victim’s family decided to shift him to the Kottayam Medical College Hospital,” said sources in the hospital. Reportedly, he is yet to get admission there and is being treated at a private hospital in Kottayam.
A witness who rushed to the scene following the accident said the cable had caused the accident, and that the victim was bleeding from his ears as well.
The incident comes barely a month after a 63-year-old motorcyclist got dangerously trapped in a low-hanging cable before being thrown off his vehicle along with his wife who was riding pillion on Justice Chandrasekhara Menon Road in Ernakulam South division. The cable had cut a deep wound around his neck not to mention the minor injuries he sustained on falling from the vehicle.
The Kerala High Court had time and again asked the civic authorities to take steps to avert accidents caused by low-hanging cables.
Initially, the engineering department was engaged to remove dangerously protruding cables. However, the Corporation Secretary engaged the health wing after the engineering department requested to be spared of the task citing workload.
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