Ghaziabad: A 34-year-old man on his way to buy ice cream for his children died after losing balance on a newly constructed speed breaker about 5 km from his Gagan Vihar home on June 6 night, falling from his bike and sustaining fatal injuries. His family alleged that the speed breaker, which had no warning signs or speed-reduction markers, was removed within hours of Kumar’s death.The victim, Rahul Kumar, was near RM Block in Rajendra Nagar’s Sector 2 when his motorcycle hit the speed breaker. The impact threw him into the air and then dragged him nearly 50 feet. Bystanders alerted the police, who rushed him to GTB Hospital in Delhi, where he succumbed to his injuries.Kumar’s wife Meenakshi said he returned home around 7 pm and went to pick up ice cream after dinner. “Kumar promised to be back in 15 minutes. But when he did not return by 11.30 pm, I asked our son to look for him in the lanes around Gagan Vihar,” she said. He came back empty-handed.Around midnight, I received a call from an unknown number. “A stranger asked me who I was, then told me that my husband had a fatal accident. Almost in a state of shock, I called my brother. We reached GTB Hospital, but it was all over by then. They said he was bleeding profusely and was gone,” she said.
The speed breaker that caused the accident. File Photo of Rahul Kumar.
Kumar’s brother-in-law Sumit Bandhu, who accompanied the family to GTB Hospital that night, said Kumar did not see the speed breaker in the dark. “His motorcycle hit it first, and then he lost his balance,” Bandhu said. The family, he said, submitted a written complaint with GMC on Wednesday, alleging that the speed breaker was illegally constructed and removed to destroy evidence.According to the civic corporation, the speed breaker was constructed by GMC on June 6 itself, the same day as the accident. It had no zebra markings, no reflectors and no signage. GMC commissioner Vikramaditya Singh Malik told TOI the speed breaker was built at the request of residents and that an inquiry committee had been set up. “Whoever is responsible for negligence, action will be taken,” he said, while also conceding there were no warning signs or reflectors at the site.President of the RM Block RWA Vinod Sisodiya, where the accident took place, said the society wrote to GMC on March 17 last year, seeking a zebra crossing after repeated accidents outside the colony. GMC forwarded the request to the traffic police, whose investigation recommended a speed breaker instead. “The breaker was completed on June 6 and needed a few days to cure before it could be painted. That is why it was not marked. The man riding at night could not have seen it,” Sisodiya said, adding that GMC broke and removed the structure immediately after the accident.GMC chief engineer NK Chaudhary, however, claimed that the structure was built too high. “We decided to widen it so the height could be adjusted, but due to a shortage of bitumen, we removed it instead,” he said.Under Indian Roads Congress guidelines, speed breakers on urban roads must be 3.7 metres wide and no more than 10 centimetres high.ACP Shalimar Garden Atul Singh said the family filed a complaint on Tuesday. “When we reached the spot for investigation, the breaker had already been removed. Initial findings show there was no signage, reflectors or markings on the surface,” he said. Police are still determining which agency bears primary responsibility before registering an FIR.A contractual housekeeping employee at Hindon Airbase earning around Rs 18,000 a month, Kumar was his family’s sole breadwinner. Meenakshi said the family shifted to Gagan Vihar from Sundernagar three years ago to be closer to a school for the children. She is now left with two children, one of them an 18-month-old, and no income. “I do not know how I am going to feed them,” she said.With Neetika Jha
