Bengaluru: In the fourth such accident in as many days, a 21-year-old bike-borne woman died on the spot while her friend escaped with minor injuries when a lorry hit the bike they were riding as the rider slowed it down to avoid a pothole, near Shettarahalli Gate on Devanahalli-Doddaballapura road on Tuesday.
The lorry ran over the pillion rider Veena as she fell off the bike after being hit by the lorry, while her friend Vijayalakshmi escaped with minor injuries.
Veena was a resident of Kundana Village in Bengaluru rural and was, along with Vijayalakshmi, returning home after getting treatment at the Devanahalli Hospital as she was not keeping well, the police said.
Fearing public ire, the driver of the lorry fled the spot leaving the vehicle at the accident site. The Vishwanathapura police have registered a complaint and are looking out for the driver.
Shortly after the tragic accident, family members of the deceased and local people in the area staged a protest on the Devanahalli-Doddaballapur road demanding action against the officials who were responsible for the appalling state of the road.
They also demanded that the officials visit the spot and get the road repaired before others pay with their lives for the apathy of officials. With Veena's death, the number of those who have died as a result of their vehicles hitting a pothole on Bengaluru's disastrously poor roads, before they were run over, goes up to four. On Sunday, a 52-year-old woman Radha was run over by a lorry after she fell off the scooter when the rider lost control while negotiating a pothole. The incident was reported near Nayandahalli Junction on Mysuru Road.
On October 3, a couple, Anthony Joseph (55) and his wife Sagai Mary (52) died on the spot after a Tamil Nadu government bus ran over them when they fell off the bike while avoiding a pothole on Sirsi Flyover on Mysuru Road near Nalanda theatre.
