Trailer mows down morning-walker

Jamshedpur: Roads in the steel city are slowly and steadily becoming mishap magnets.

In the second accident in 24 hours, a 50-year-old morning-walker was crushed under the wheels of a trailer truck ferrying steel coil on Bhuiyandih Main Road in Sitaramdera on Tuesday. Dinesh Sharma, a resident of Nirmal Nagar in Humepipe and a carpenter by profession, was the sole breadwinner of his family.

On Monday afternoon, a railway parcel agent, Manmohan Singh (22), had lost his life while trying to overtake a truck, loaded with gas cylinders, on his bike at Garamnala in Bistupur.

According to an eyewitness, Sharma was talking to a fellow morning-walker at Birsa Chowk around 4.15am when the trailer, bound for Agrico, knocked him down from behind. The vehicle then rammed into a stationary pushcart and almost ploughed into a house.

Passers-by nabbed the cleaner of the trailer and roughed him up. Residents of a local slum damaged the vehicle too. The driver who managed to dodge mob ire was arrested later and sent to jail. The trailer has been seized.

Sitaramdera police had a tough time placating angry protesters who refused to part with the body.

OC Bhushan Kumar said the bereaved family was given an ex gratia of Rs 20,000 for Sharma's last rites. "The owner of the trailer truck has also agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000, besides paying Rs 5,000 each to the owner of a damaged pushcart and house," he said.

The body was then sent to MGM Medical College in Dimna for post-mortem.

Officer Kumar said the driver had blamed a technical fault in the steering for the accident. "He said the driving wheel got stuck as he veered left. His driving licence is valid till February 17, 2018. An FIR has been lodged on the basis of a statement given by the victim's son."

Sharma's 24-year-old unemployed son Mithun said the carpenter was the only earning member of their family of three. "My father was health conscious. He never missed his morning-walk on Bhuiyandih Main Road."

A police source said the bereaved family would be entitled to a third party insurance done by the trailer owner. "The assured amount will be around Rs 15 lakh," he added.

This was the second accident (see box) in a month on the same stretch of road, which hosts 20,000 heavy vehicles every day and yet lacks both speed breakers and traffic signs.

Vivek Singh, a resident of Nirmal Nagar like carpenter Sharma, suggested permanent deployment of traffic cops. "Blood spills on this road with alarming frequency; high time something was done," he said, adding that local residents had petitioned the city authorities, including Jusco, twice in recent times.