Burnt alive for about 100 metres an incident that is a shocking incident in Bengaluru in a Kurubarahalli area in Bengaluru in April and has raised questions about road safety as that of a 23‑year‑old cab driver was killed for that reason after a heavy truck lost control of it while sliding and crashed into his parked car. The tragedy turned into a nightmare when the car was dragged nearly 100 metres, crashed into a scrap godown and caught fire in the driver room, the young taxi driver burned alive in Bengaluru.
The cabbie was headed out to pick up a passenger when the tragedy occurred. A trailer truck laden with iron rods slipped down a slope. The cab slipped into it to drag it along the road to crash into a garbage godown. The collision set the car on fire. It wasn’t long at all before the driver disappeared.
Those initial accounts said that the truck had been overloaded (and traveled on a restricted route). Heavy vehicles are prohibited (in some areas of Bengaluru) but there were lapses in enforcement and therefore the truck made it through. The slope increased its risk, which complicated the driver's ability to control the vehicle. Heavy load, bad routes and absent enforcement were the conditions for this disaster.
The accident highlights few other pressing issues:
- For drivers of City Cars, a constant hazard in the city streets is the overloading trucks.
- The restricted route is not always strictly enforced, so heavy vehicles can come to unsafe places, if need be.
- Some navigation apps can guide trucks through unsuitable roads. The danger is compounded with apps on the trucks that lead to them to drive onto road blocks in a particular way.
- Emergency response is also frequently delayed, leaving victims with few prospects of survival in such a situation.
The tragedy has shaken residents of Kurubarahalli and beyond. Traffic enforcement and monitoring of heavy vehicles has also been promoted as important concerns in the aftermath. For cab drivers, and commuters today, the tragedy has served to underscore the hazards of taking one or two drivers in a group with a lot of cars off the roads in Bengaluru.
The tragic death of a young cab driver in Kurubarahalli was a painful but stark reminder on road safety at the heart of what it means for travellers to not live. Poor coordination, overloading trucks, unlicensed routes continue to take casualties of lives on the road. Everything else should be done soon too, the government might not be able to monitor and get control from the very onset and keep moving forward and not leave us hanging in the lonesome or dead as the town becomes so scared.
