Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
Two riders fall 40ft to death In a tragic accident, on Tuesday (September 14) night after a speeding car hit the bike they were travelling in on the Electronic City flyover in Bengaluru.
Preetam Kumar (30), a quality control manager, from Bengaluru and 28-year-old Kritika Raman who hailed from Tamil Nadu, a team leader, died on the spot after the speeding car hit their bike.
Senior officer as,Joint CP Traffic, Dr BR Ravikanthe Gowda along with DCP East, Shantharaju M with other officers rushed to spot and after inspecting the spot he said,The victims of the Electronic-city flyover accidents have been identified as Preetham Kumar,30, and his friend Krithika Raman, who were on a joy ride after borrowing a bike from a friend,the police said.
It was around 9.20 pm when the duo had parked the bike at the lay by on the flyover near Singasandra and were standing,when the speeding car collided with the bike.
While Preetham worked as quality control manager at a private firm in Marathahalli and residing in JP Nagar, Krithika Raman is a team leader at a private firm in Mahadevapura and native of Chennai.The duo have been friends for 8 years .
Due to the impact the duo threw up in the air and fell on the service road below the flyover and skidded to around 100 meters.
Luckily there were no heavy vehicles passing by , otherwise they would have been run over,a police officer said .
The impact of the accident was so high that the car was dangling to the edge of the flyover and the bike was also damaged .
The accused driver,later identified as Nitesh,23, engineering student and resident of Bommasandra also sustained injuries and was admitted to a private hospital.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that he was driving alone and was driving rash and negligent with over 100 kms speed.
“We have collected the blood samples and sent it to the FSL to determine whether he was under the influence of alcohol or any other toxic substances”, Dr.BR, Ravikanthe Gowda,Joint Commissioner of Police ( traffic )said .
Soon after the accident, the police stepped up vigil on the flyovers to check on the over speeding vehicles.
Due to unavoidable circumstances and heavy criticism,the traffic police had stopped special drives including drunken driving and rash and negligent driving especially during the night time, Mr, Gowda said.
People and even some sections of the media criticised traffic police for conducting drunk driving checks during covid time.
However,considering the series of road accidents where innocent people are getting killed,we will chalk out different strategies to contain the menace, he said .
The families of both the victims are informed and the police are coordinating with them to perform their last rites .
We are awaiting to question Nitesh who is recovering at the hospital he added.
After a spot visit on Wednesday, senior police officials have recommended that the parapet wall of the Electronics City flyover be raised by at least two feet.
They also recommended putting up reflectors for a 6-km stretch and also accident zone signboards.
These recommendations were made in the wake of the deaths of a man and a woman who were thrown off the flyover on Tuesday night when a car knocked down their two-wheeler.
The duo were tossed in the air and fell down onto the road around 30 feet below the flyover. According to the police, the car was going at such a high speed that it was left dangling on the edge of the flyover after the impact.
Further investigation is underway.The driver was not in an inebriated state at the time of the accident.
He has also borne injuries and is admitted in the Intensive Care Unit.We will question the driver once he’s conscious,the official added.
The Electronic city police have filed a FIR under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304(A) (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
