Trucker killed after rookie assistant causes crash

A truck driver was killed in sleep after his rookie assistant got at the wheel and rammed into a building in northern Bengaluru in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

Tejas, the 31-year-old truck driver, was feeling sleepy and had asked his assistant, Mallanna, to drive. The truck was transporting mud to Mathikere. As Mallanna began to steer the truck, Tejas moved to the left side of the cabin and slept there.

Mallanna, however, turned out to be a rookie driver. The truck was overloaded, and he failed to properly steer it. The result was catastrophic. The truck moved in zigzags before crashing into a commercial complex at Doddabomasandra around 3.15 am. While Mallanna jumped out of the truck, crying for help, Tejas was trapped inside and died instantly. Mallanna’s screams drew local residents who stepped out to see what had happened and called the police.

Officers from the Yelahanka traffic police station rushed to the spot but were overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. The truck’s front was partially stuck into the building, and Tejas’s body was trapped inside the wrecked cabin. Finding it impossible to retrieve the body, police called rescue workers who later had to cut a part of the truck’s front to pull the body out.

Mallanna himself sustained grievous injuries and is being treated at a hospital while Tejas’s body was shifted for autopsy. A senior police officer said Mallanna had been booked for causing death by negligence and that he would be arrested after being discharged from hospital.