Runners walk up to Worli police station; seek 'fair probe' into jogger's death

MUMBAI: The morning after a speeding car hit Rajalakshmi Vijay (57) who was on her morning run along Worli sea face, killing her on the spot, runners from Striders group walked from Shivaji Park to Worli police station, submitted a list of demands and sought a "fair investigation" into the case. Rajalakshmi, CEO of Altruist Technologies, and her husband were part of this group.
One of the main demands of the runners was sensitising the ecosystem of the fact that runners and cyclists are part of traffic. "If there are signages for deer crossing or elephant crossing on jungle roads, the administration can definitely put up signs that the roads are to be shared with runners and riders," said Dr Anand Patil, a member of Striders,
"It is a small percentage of riders or drivers who harrass or bully runners," said Patil. "If police identify the zones where runners are harrassed, they can reduce such incidents with patrolling."
Shivaji Park resident Naveen Hegde said all that runners need is a few hours in the morning on most Sundays. "Most of the long runs are planned on a Sunday because there is less traffic."
Hegde suggested that 15-20km of road could be earmarked for endurance athletes. "We see that a lot in countries like the US, the UK and Germany," he added.
He further said that the entire Worli sea face stretch could also have harricades at short intervals for the first few hours of the morning so that runners' safety is ensured.
Runners also wanted to challenge the claims by Sumer Merchant, who was driving the vehicle that killed Rajalakshmi, that it was a blind sp-ot that led to the accident. "You do not need to drive at 100kmph to drop somebody in the wee of the morning when the roads are relatively empty," said a runner, who did not wish to be named. It was also claimed that police took inordinately long to take Merchant's blood and a breath analyser tests