In a second pothole-related death in five days, a 45-year-old man died after a speeding truck ran over him at Dwarli Naka on Haji Malang road in Kalyan in the neighbouring Thane district on Wednesday. Following the incident, the Hill line police arrested the driver of the truck Nasim Mohammad Jai khan and booked him for rash and negligent driving.
Eyewitnesses said the man — identified as one Anna — tripped after stumbling in a pothole in the middle of the road. A speeding truck crushed him to death.
The Haji Malang road, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), has several potholes.
Wednesday was the second pothole-related incident. Earlier on Saturday, a 40-year-old female pillion rider was crushed to death by a speeding private bus after she fell from a scooter that skidded after hitting a pothole during heavy rain. The victim woman Manisha Bhoir who worked at a school in Kalyan, was going home with a family member on Friday afternoon when the mishap took place.
Before long, the video of the mishap taken by a passer-by through his smart went viral. In the video, Ms Bhoir could be seen riding pillion as she holds up an umbrella in the pouring rain. The two-wheeler skidded over a pothole on the flooded road in Kalyan’s Shivaji Chowk. The video showed that Manisha was run over by the rear wheels of a speeding bus. Though her relative and passers-by tried pulled her out, Manisha was crushed further by the bus as it moved forward. The victim woman died on the spot.
Meanwhile, the rains spared Mumbaikars and their counterparts in the neighbouring areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Thursday.
In a related development, the Mumbai Congress staged a symbolic protest against the pothole-ridden roads in the metropolis by launching a campaign to count the number potholes and craters developed on the roads. “After counting the potholes on the city roads, we will place a lotus in each of the pothole. We will also take steps to concretise the potholes on the roads,” Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said.