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B’luru woman falls due to pothole, run over by truck
A pick-up truck ran over the woman after she fell off the two-wheeler in which the couple was travelling when trying to avoid the pothole in Byadarahalli in Bengaluru.
A 46-year-old woman died on Sunday after she tried to avoid a pothole in Benglauru’s treacherous roads, adding to the growing number of casualties as a result of apathy by civic authorities in the country’s technology capital.
A pick-up truck ran over the woman after she fell off the two-wheeler in which the couple was travelling when trying to avoid the pothole in Byadarahalli in Bengaluru.
“The incident took place at 10.30 this morning. But the complaint we have received is that the vehicle hit them from behind which caused the two-wheeler rider to lose balance,” said a police official requesting not to be named.
He said the husband, who is currently receiving treatment at a private hospital, was yet to give his statement and police were carrying on their investigation.
Though there are conflicting versions of what may have caused the accident, one look at the stretch of the road with jagged edges and unfinished asphalting, adds to the possibility of the two-wheeler going off balance due to the condition of the road.
The accident is the latest in a series of similar incidents that are increasing in Bengaluru where non-existent or poor quality of roads has snuffed out several lives over the years.
The husband also sustained serious injuries and has been taken to the hospital, according to locals present on the road.
The incident comes days after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, the city’s civic body) had told the Karnataka High Court that it had filled up all the potholes in its limits which the judges themselves said was unbelievable.
“We personally feel that you have not done anything...Don’t say anything which we ourselves feel is wrong,” according to a report by LiveLaw on Thursday.
A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindraj heard the case that was filed by Vijayan Menon.
The BBMP, one of India’s biggest and richest civic bodies, spends thousands of crores in tax payers’ money each year on road-related works.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, during the monsoon session of the state legislature in September last year, had said over ₹20,000 crore was spent by the administration on road-related works in Bengaluru over the last five years.
Bengaluru’s roads are among the most treacherous in the country, claiming several lives each year and being one of the biggest challenges in the lives of over 12 million residents of India’s IT capital.
“You cannot get away by saying that when the roads were constructed the load on the roads was less. Now you have to come out with solutions! Some method you have to come out with to ensure that roads bear the load,” the court observed, according to LiveLaw.
The case is scheduled to be heard again on February 7.
Civic apathy has claimed over 18 lives in Bengaluru in 2020, which is more than all the other big cities in India, combined, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.
In September last year, a 75-year-old differently abled man lost his life after his two-wheeler hit a pothole in Kamakshipalya locality. The police filed a case of negligent driving on the victim.
A seven-year-old Dhavani N from Tumakuru , in a heartfelt message to the chief minister in October last year, offered all of her savings to get potholes fixed after he mother sustained injuries in a road accident caused by poor quality of roads.
