Techie, who died in Electronic City flyover accident, moved to city 13 days ago

Traffic police attribute the ghastly mishap to overspeeding

When Kruthika Raman (28) moved to Bengaluru 13 days ago to work as a team lead with Coin Switch, little did she know the tragedy that lay in store for her as she began a new chapter.

On Tuesday night, Chennai-based Kruthika and her friend Preetham Kumar, a 30-year-old resident of JP Nagar, were riding on the Royal Enfield borrowed from his roommate when they were violently thrown off the Electronic City flyover by an overspeeding Maruti Suzuki Baleno.

Kumar worked as a quality control manager at Novopay.

For reasons unknown, the duo had stopped the two-wheeler on the flyover and had gotten off the vehicle. In 10 seconds of them alighting the motorcycle, the speeding car had knocked them off their feet.

About 15 over-speeding cases had been reported on the flyover on Tuesday alone.

Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) said 20 to 25 overspeeding cases are booked daily on the flyover. Joint Commissioner (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda blamed overspeeding in this case, too.

“When on flyovers or elevated corridors, it becomes difficult to gauge relative speed as there are no buildings on either side,” Gowda said.

“Even those moving at 100 km/h feel like they are moving at 60 km/h. Besides, we cannot even install road humps on national highways, but only road rumble strips”. The car involved in the accident was driven by Nitesh P, a 23-year-old from Anekal taluk, who was also injured in the accident and is being treated at Kaveri Hospital in Electronics City.

The traffic policeman, however, said there was no smell of alcohol detected on Nitesh, but the blood sample has been sent to test for drugs.

What the traffic expert has to say

Although there are no major structural problems with the expressway, traffic expert M N Sreehari pointed to the lack of shoulder space.

“As one of the oldest flyovers in the city, the flyover only has narrow two plus two lanes. Nowadays, with new flyovers, there is a two-metre space left on either side of the structure. The presence of it could have saved the duo.”

He added that just because there are good engines, people should not raise the speed and also cautioned riders not to stop on flyovers.