Two bikers killed in separate accidents on EEH

A 28-year-old karate teacher and a 32-year-old man from Thane died when their two-wheelers crashed into breakdown vehicles on the Eastern Express Highway on Friday. The police said in both cases, the vehicle owners had not put up any breakdown warnings such as warning triangles

MUMBAI: A 28-year-old karate teacher and a 32-year-old man from Thane died when their two-wheelers crashed into breakdown vehicles on the Eastern Express Highway on Friday. The police said in both cases, the vehicle owners had not put up any breakdown warnings such as warning triangles, nor were the parking lights on.

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In the first incident that took place on Friday morning, Gautam Kumar, 28, a karate teacher who lived in Vikhroli East, was on his way to his karate classes in Ghatkopar. When he reached near Pravin Hotel on the Eastern Express Highway at Kannamwar Nagar, Vikhroli, he crashed into a broken-down dumper from behind. After the accident, he fell on the road. Motorists informed the Vikhroli police, who took him to Rajawadi Hospital, where he was declared dead.

According to the police, Gautam Kumar had started around 5:30am from home. His sister called him around 9:30am on Friday, and the call was answered by a police officer who informed her about the accident. Kumar’s wife had delivered a girl ten days ago, and the family was very happy, said the police officer. His father works in a shoe factory in Bhiwandi and had two sons and one daughter. Gautam was the eldest and the earning family member, the officer added.

“We have booked the dumper driver under Sections 106(1) (causing death by negligence) and 285 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and under various sections of the Motor Vehicles Act for not putting any reflector triangle nor keeping the tail light switched on, which led to the death of Gautam,” said the police officer.

In the other case, Ajay Durairaj Kaunder, 32, a Thane resident from Kopri, was on his way to Ghatkopar for work with his friend, Prashant Bokade, when their scooter crashed into a broken-down pick-up jeep near Pant Nagar bridge, Southbound lane, Vikhroli East.

The police said the accident took place on Friday late night when Ajay rammed the scooter into the pick-up truck, and his friend was thrown away, surviving with minor injuries.

“We registered a case later on Friday night for causing death by negligence against the pick-up driver, who had stopped the vehicle after it failed due to the heavy rains. He, however, had not put up any caution triangle alerting other motorists about the breakdown and did not keep the parking lights switched on, which led to the biker crashing into it, resulting in his death,” said the police officer.