A motorcyclist died in a road accident ostensibly caused by a bad road in Rajajinagar, North Bengaluru, on Monday.
Kumar, 35, fell off his scooter while travelling on a lane that links Dr Rajkumar Road. The scooter skidded as he tried to overtake a tractor on the badly patched road. As the bumpy ride dislodged him from the scooter, his head brushed against the tractor trolley that was moving to his left. He suffered head injuries and collapsed on the ground. He died later.
The crash was caught on camera. The Malleshwaram traffic police have booked the tractor driver for causing death by negligence.
Kumar was a resident of Marappanapalya and worked as a plumber.
The road, barely 15 feet wide, had been dug up for laying utility lines but wasn't patched up properly. The stretch where Kumar fell off with his scooter is uneven, making it dangerous for vehicle users. Local residents say the stretch has become an accident zone.
This is one of several accidents caused by potholes and bad roads in the city. At least two deaths were reported in October. This month, a man slipped into a coma after meeting with an accident caused by a pothole, according to his family.
The BBMP washed its hands of Monday's incident, claiming that the bad road had nothing to do with it.
Indiscriminate road-digging and poor patchwork have been blamed for the poor condition of city roads.
The BBMP allows government and private agencies as well as residents to dig up roads, provided they pay road-cutting charges. While roads are dug up at break-neck speed, the BBMP often drags its feet on repairing them.