MUMBAI: A luxury car moving in the wrong direction on
Malad Link Road crashed into a 35-year-old jogger, drove over his leg and fled early in the morning last Sunday. Though the road is covered by numerous surveillance cameras, the car's registration plate was not captured clearly and the driver remains untraced, said the police.
Jasmeet Singh Rekhi
Jasmeet Singh Rekhi suffered multiple fractures and is recuperating in the ICCU of a private hospital.
Rekhi, who works with a security firm, and two of his friends had decided to play
cricket on Sunday. They planned to meet at Inorbit mall and head to Orlem for the game. Rekhi left his house at Jankalyan Nagar around 5.40am and began to jog on the south-bound arm of Link Road.
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The traffic department’s inability to enforce discipline on the roads has emboldened errant motorists driving in the wrong lane, a breed that’s dangerously on the rise. This paper has reported in the past on this menace. In the present case, surveillance cameras on an arterial road like Link Road too seem to have failed to capture the offender. Investing in e-surveillance at traffic junctions is clearly not enough, the state must bring in gear with more resolution.
According to Rekhi's statement to the police, he had crossed the
Chincholi Bunder signal when a high-end car hurtled towards him in the wrong direction. The driver couldn't control the vehicle and it crashed into him. The impact shattered the windscreen of the car, which went over Rekhi's right leg and sped off, again in the wrong direction.
‘Injured man said woman was driving a white car’
Rekhi collapsed and started bleeding from his nose and mouth. Soon passers-by gathered around him. One of his friends on the way to the mall noticed the hullabaloo and saw Rekhi on the ground. He called an ambulance and rushed Rekhi to Hospital.
Ironically, Rekhi, who lives with his wife and child, goes to work in an office in his building compound every day and doesn’t usually have to tackle the busy traffic. “In the hospital’s accident ward, my brother told me that a woman was at the wheel and the vehicle was white. He then lost consciousness. He has suffered three fractures in his nasal bone, besides fractures in his leg and internal bleeding in his chest. He underwent a surgery for his leg on Thursday,” Rekhi’s brother Gurjeet told TOI.
“We cannot understand how there are no leads on the motorist who has landed my brother in this condition. Link Road is an arterial road and is supposed to be covered with cameras having a high resolution,” he added. The family has now joined an online petition started by Malad residents for improved road safety. The petition, addressed to the BMC, has garnered nearly 900 signatures so far. Senior inspector Vijay Bane of Bangur Nagar police station said they have registered a case of rash driving under the IPC and motor vehicles Act and are looking for the motorist.
