Fatal accident hits turnout at Ramenahalli

Residents of Ramenahalli in Belur mourning the loss of the villagers who died in an accident while on their way to exercise their franchise on Saturday.

Residents of Ramenahalli in Belur mourning the loss of the villagers who died in an accident while on their way to exercise their franchise on Saturday.  

At least half of the voters at Ramenahalli in Belur constituency did not cast their vote on Saturday. The accident that took lives of five villagers and left another seven seriously injured made the voters forget about exercising their franchise.

Two women – Sharadamma, 50, a mother of three sons, and Kamalamma, 60, who has five children, died on the spot when the autorickshaw they were travelling in to reach the polling station was hit by a truck near Chilkur on Hassan-Belur highway around 11 a.m.. Three others, Jayalakshmi, Ammayyamma and Lakshmi Gowda – also from Ramenahalli – succumbed to their injuries later in the day. They met with the accident even before reaching the polling station.

Padmesh, the autorickshaw driver, was assigned by a political party to take voters from Ramenahalli to the polling station at Chilkur on the day. And it was his third trip for the day. As he took a turn towards Chilkur, a truck from the opposite direction hit the vehicle.

“We ran to the spot once we heard about the incident. Among those who died and suffered injuries, many were my relatives,” said Latha, from the village. Nobody from the village bothered to vote after the accident. A majority of them ran to hospitals to look after those being treated. Padmesh, the driver of the autorickshaw, is also seriously injured. He is undergoing treatment in a private hospital.

“I was about to get into the autorickshaw, but delayed for a few minutes as I had to give my baby medicine. Otherwise, I too would have been among those who met with the accident,” said Meenakshi, another resident of the village.

The kin of the deceased blame the distance the villagers have to cover to exercise the right to vote. “We have to travel 5 km to reach the polling station at Chilkur. Though we have a good school and other facilities, we do not have a polling station here,” said Suresh, the son of Sharadamma.

Whenever elections are held, residents of Ramenahalli visit Chilkur to vote. This time the total number of voters at Chilkur was 759, including those from Ramenahalli and Lakshmipura.

There is a shortcut by which one could reach the polling booth by walking for about 1 km. “But the elderly cannot walk. They have to depend on vehicles to reach the booth. We have to cross the busy Hassan-Belur Road to reach the booth,” Sunitha, another resident said.