A youngster succumbed to injuries sustained in an accident reportedly caused by half-baked road restoration work after maintenance of a drinking water pipeline by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) at Mundampalam in Kalamassery.
The deceased was identified as Shymil Jacob Sunil, 21, of Kangarappady. He had a fall from his scooter after hitting the restored stretch of the Edappally-Pookkattupady PWD Road in Ward 18 of the Kalamassery Municipality on February 2 around 11 p.m.
He was initially rushed to a private hospital at Thrikkakara before being shifted to another hospital on Friday. “The patient was brought here with serious head injuries. He had been put on ventilator in neuro-ICU since his admission,” said hospital sources.
The KWA had dug up the road for pipeline maintenance on January 21. According to KWA sources, the dug-up road was filled up and barricaded to keep the stretch away from traffic on the day.
“We laid granular sub base [GSB] in the area concerned as part of readying it for laying interlocking tiles and opened it to traffic on January 22. We had to give some time for GSB to set before laying the tiles. We put another layer of GSB to further even the stretch before laying tiles on January 27,” said a senior KWA official. (GSB is a construction material for road construction as a sub-base layer).
The official claimed that stocktaking was done with the overseers concerned, and that it was not the fault of the work that led to the accident. The contractor concerned also made similar claims saying that the work was done in compliance with rules.
However, P.S. Biju, municipal councillor, alleged that indifference and half-baked work by the KWA and the contractor had caused the accident. “There was no warning tape or reflector around the stretch, which would have alerted the youngster and saved his life,” he said.
The Thrikkakara police have registered a motor offence case. “We will have to conduct a probe to verify whether there is ground for registering a case,” a senior police officer said.
