Road roller loses control on Mapusa slope; 1 killed, driver held

MAPUSA: A road roller killed a woman and injured her son, while crushing several two-wheelers and a four-wheeler as it came down the slope near the Mapusa municipality office on Monday afternoon.
The accident took place when the driver of the road roller travelling from Mapusa court junction towards the town lost control over it because of alleged brake failure.
The deceased has been identified as Seva Madgaonkar, 56, a resident of Ucassaim-Paliem in Bardez, her son Shubham was also injured in the accident.They were travelling on their scooter along the slope.
Sources informed that after reaching the Mapusa court junction, the road roller driver Basu Parinavar, 25, lost control over it. As the road roller was already on the slope it was very difficult for the driver to control it.
The driver started shouting loudly to the people on the road to move aside even as the road roller speed kept increasing as it was travelling down the slope.
When the road roller reached the slope in front of the MMC office, it hit the scooter coming in the opposite direction. The impact was so powerful that Madgaonkar was flung off from her scooter and hit the gutter by the road.
While her son Shubham was flung on to the road. The locals at the site rushed to the rescue and took the mother and son to the district hospital at Peddem in a goods carrier rickshaw.
Seva, who suffered serious injuries to her head succumbed at the district hospital, while her son is undergoing treatment.
The road roller which was in no control of the driver hit the two two-wheelers along the road. By this time the road roller had already travelled for more than 150 meters along the slope.
Realizing that the vehicle cannot be controlled because of the junction ahead the driver jumped off it to save his life. The speeding road roller, without driver, later it entered the no-entry road and hit the building, near Menezes pharmacy, and fell on its side, but not before damaging 11 two-wheelers and a car. Six two-wheelers were completely crushed under the roller.
The road roller was being used at Duler in Mapusa for the road widening and it was being taken from there to Mapusa to be used for the road widening work from Gandhi circle to the Bodgeshwar temple..
The impact of the accident was minimized because the driver did not ran away after witnessing the brake failure but kept alerting the road users till the point he could control it.
After getting information, Mapusa police team led by PI Tushar Vernekar along with PSIs Jatin Potdar, Atiskesh Khedekar, Sandip Haldankar and Yashwant Raikar rushed to the spot and started the rescue operation. The team of fire and emergency services also arrived at the site and used water to prevent the roller from catching the fire. Large quantity of engine oil spread at the accident site as vehicles were crushed under the road roller. The rescue teams used dry mud to cover the oil spill and prevent accidents.
The ill-fated roller was cleared using a crane. Police conducted the panchanama and arrested the road roller driver. Further investigations are in progress.
TIMES VIEW:
The incline leading to the Mapusa municipal council (MMC) and onwards is as difficult to approach as it is dangerous. Unregulated two-way traffic movement and haphazard parking of vehicles along the road only add to the risks, especially for pedestrians. The thoroughfare needs to be decongested, and fast. To begin with, the MMC should be shifted to lower ground. This will not only lead to a significant reduction in traffic on the slope but will also ease pedestrians' woes.