Most truckers who kill and maim Delhi’s residents are seldom brought to justice. They simply hit and run.
A trailer had hit Kehar Singh, a 69-year-old former Delhi Police employee, on the afternoon of January 17. He has since been bedridden, paralysed waist down. The accident took place metres from his Sarai Rohilla home. Despite an eyewitness noting down the Haryana-registered truck’s number, the vehicle and its driver remained untraced for a month.
Singh’s family met senior officers and requested that the investigating officer (IO) of the case be changed. “The IO was changed. We arrested the driver and impounded the truck on Monday,” said DCP (North) Sunil Garg.
In this case, the truck-owner lived in Delhi. And this helped police catch the driver.
The victim had retired as an ASI. This helped him and his family pursue the case with vigour. No such privileges for the common man.
It is rare for a killer truck to be impounded and its driver arrested.
In 2004, in as many as 50 per cent of 1,782 fatal accidents, the vehicle's registration number could not be known.
A recent Delhi Police study of accidents states that these 940 fatal accidents by “unknown vehicles” should also be attributed to trucks.
“Such accidents have been generally reported during the nights. Cases (of unknown vehicles behind fatal accidents) have increased over the years,” the study states.
{{/usCountry}}“Such accidents have been generally reported during the nights. Cases (of unknown vehicles behind fatal accidents) have increased over the years,” the study states.
{{/usCountry}}It was in barely 16 per cent of the 1,782 incidents of fatal accidents that the truck involved could be traced. What this means is that one in every four trucks that kill on Delhi's roads manages to escape undetected.
“The lack of deterrence, and weak road accident-related laws contribute to accidents,” concedes a police officer. The retired ASI's case illustrates that trucks successfully dodge entry restrictions.