A 17-year-old schoolboy, biking on a national highway without helmet, was killed in a crash near Bokaro steel city on Thursday afternoon, underscoring perhaps for the umpteenth time the perils of underage driving and violation of road safety rules.
Police are hunting for clues in surveillance cameras installed near the accident site. An FIR has been registered against an unidentified vehicle.
Yash Raj, a Class XI student of Ayyappa School in Bokaro and grandson of a Chas Municipal Corporation councillor, had bunked school to take his father's bike for a spin. He was riding from hometown Chas to Bokaro city along NH-23 when a car grazed his bike from behind near the Chas block office. The teenager lost control and the two-wheeler skidded off the road around 12.45pm.
Arun Kumar Mahto, an eyewitness, said Yash was not exactly speeding, but he wasn't wearing a helmet. "So, when the bike scraped the road for a good 10ft after being hit by the speeding car, the boy's head suffered the maximum impact," Mahto said, adding that Yash died before he could be rushed to hospital. "The victim was rushed to KM Memorial hospital (in Chas), but was declared brought dead."
Yash was the elder among two sons of social worker Manoj Singh. His councillor grandmother Punam Devi, along with his parents, Chas mayor Bholu Paswan and Bokaro MLA Viranchi Narain, rushed to the hospital. Yash's mother fainted twice while father Manoj tried hard to fight back tears as he avoided mediapersons.
"I feel sad for the parents. The boy should have worn a helmet. Police are conducting a traffic awareness week and yet people are violating safety rules. The price of a small mistake is so big that it will scar the whole life of this family," mayor Paswan said.
Chas thana OC inspector Kamal Kishore said they were looking for a Maruti Wagon R, which, according to witnesses, grazed the boy's bike while trying to overtake it on NH-23. "There are CCTV cameras at Dharmshala More in Chas, not very far from the accident spot. We are hoping to ID the vehicle from the footage," he said.
This was the fifth road accident death in four days in Bokaro.
Four persons, including a Central Coalfields employee and a forest guard, were killed and five others seriously injured in a spate of accidents in and around Bokaro between January 8 and 9. The mishaps maligned the start of the traffic awareness week in the Coal Belt on Monday and prompted Bokaro police chief Y.S. Ramesh to pledge a big crackdown against reckless driving.
