In another case of death in an accident suspected to be caused by a bad stretch of road, a 22-year-old student was killed and another youth was severely injured in Yelahanka New Town on Saturday night. The accident occurred when a car allegedly in a bid to avoid a bad stretch of road collided head-on with a bike and overturned.
This is the third accident in which people have died allegedly while trying to navigate bad stretches of roads or potholes in the city since the onset of monsoon this year, and the eighth case in the last year. The accident comes days after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the city’s civic body for not implementing its directions on filling potholes on Thursday. Following this, acting on directions from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also holds the charge of the city portfolio, chief civic commissioner Tushar Giri Nath has issued an internal circular setting November 5 as the deadline for filling potholes, failing which he threatened disciplinary action against officials.
The latest accident occurred around 11 p.m. on Saturday on Attur Main Road. Rahul was riding the bike while his friend Harshad was riding pillion, when a car from the opposite direction lost control, collided with the bike head-on, and overturned on a bad stretch of road. Both Rahul and Harshad were injured and were rushed to a nearby private hospital. Harshad, who had sustained severe head injuries, was declared dead. The driver abandoned the car and fled from the scene. The dramatic visuals of the accident, recorded by a CCTV camera at a nearby establishment, has been shared widely on social media.
In his complaint to the police, Sreeraj Sreedharan, a friend of the deceased, has blamed both the car driver for overspeeding and rash driving and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials for the bad stretch of road. “There is a deep crater on the road where the accident occurred. It was raining and there was water in the crater. So I request to take suitable legal action against BBMP officials concerned who are also responsible for the accident,” the FIR reads. The Yelahanka traffic police have registered a case of causing death due to negligence under Section 304A of Indian Penal Code against the absconding car driver and unidentified BBMP officials. The police are on the lookout for the car driver, who was allegedly overspeeding and driving rashly, which has made the police suspect he was under the influence of alcohol.
Meanwhile, civic officials closed the pothole and re-did the portion of the road on Sunday. Mr. Giri Nath told The Hindu that whether the accident occurred due to the pothole or not was a matter of investigation by the traffic police. He said the stretch of road where the accident occurred was recently dug up by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board to lay water pipelines and was redone, but the asphalted portion of the road had sunk in at three places which were being reworked now. He said the civic body was working on a war footing to close all potholes by November 5.
