Is Bangalore insenitive ?

Is Bangalore insenitive ?
By: Savie KarnelDate: 2008-08-20

Bangalore:
Last week, a woman was hit by a vehicle while crossing the road and run over by other vehicles until every bone was powdered. Her body had turned into a ball of flesh by the time police arrived at the spot.

This gruesome accident involving this 60-year-old woman on August 11 bears testimony to the Bangaloreans' increasing insensitivity to humanity.

The woman was perhaps crossing the Old Madras road near Big Bazaar at around 4 am. She was hit by a vehicle and then mowed down by vehicles that followed.

"At around 7 am one passer-by informed us and we went to the spot. It was difficult to make out if the body was that of a human being or an animal. Not a single bone was left in tact. It was all mangled flesh. Just because there was a saree in between the flesh, we figured that it was a lady," said a cop at Jeevan
Bhimanagar police station.

The police had a tough time gathering the various parts of her body.

"We used a spade and put the pieces together. It was shifted to Bowring hospital mortuary. The body was beyond recognition and no one came claiming for it. We then buried the body," he said.

Left to die

The police say such insensitivity is not new. "Bangaloreans these days have no heart. We come across several cases where accident victims are left to die on the streets. People are scared of being questioned by the police, so they do not bother to report dying people. At night vehicles usually cannot see a body lying on the road and zoom over it," he said.

Three months ago, a man bled to death on the same road. Chinu (45), a father of four was riding his two-wheeler, when he was hit by a silver Indica car. "He was lying on the road bleeding for over three hours. No one bothered to either inform the police or take him to hospital. When we finally took him to hospital he died of profuse bleeding. We found a piece of a silver Indica, but we could not find the car," said a police.

Last year, an assistant manager at ITC Infotech, Shiv Kumar Bora (27), who was riding a two-wheeler met with an accident on Dickenson Road. He was lying there but no one helped take him to the hospital. When an ambulance was passing by people stopped it and sent him to the Bowring hospital.

He had died by the time they reached hospital.

Don't hesitate

K Srinivas, DCP Traffic (East), said people should come forward to help accident victims. "As on July 31 this year we have 54 hit-and-run cases, where people have died. People need not be scared to help accident victims. The most important thing is to save a life," he said.