Chances of getting run over in Delhi are now terrifying
A six-second video clip I posted on June 13 of a hit-and-run accident in Delhi has gone viral. The horrifying footage shows a clearly overspeeding Honda City smashing into a man out on an early morning walk in Delhi's Janakpuri locality, his mangled body flung several feet before it crashes into a tree. The 40-year-old died on the spot from head injuries.
This isn't the first (or even recent) hit and run crime caught on camera, but something about it has clearly touched a nerve, not just here in India, but around the world. Here's that video:
[DISTURBING] Terrifying CCTV video of Honda City hit & run in Delhi's Janakpuri today. https://t.co/YEb2cAfndJ
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) June 13, 2016
The driver of the car, a very drunk Rishabh Rawat, didn't slow down.
He went on from that first collision to mow down a senior citizen on another road and mowed down a car-cleaner after that, before being chased down and stopped by a motorcycle-borne policeman, who himself was nearly run over.
From today's newspapers: Pictures of the Rishabh Rawat, the drunk youth who was driving in the Honda City hit & run. pic.twitter.com/6nwqRmhkxI
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) June 14, 2016
Delhi-based NGO SaveLifeFoundation (SLF), which focuses its projects on improving road safety and emergency care across the country, has drawn up a report with figures that would either alarm you, or if you've been watching the news recently, shake your head without an ounce of surprise.
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| The terrifying moment a Mercedes fatally smashed into young Sidharth Sharma in Delhi. |
In 2015, SaveLifeFoundation compiled data says, "The total number of hit-and-run cases in India was reported as 57,083", a staggering 11.4 per cent of the total number of road accidents in the country (up from just more than 10 per cent the previous year). Those 57,083 hit-and-run crimes resulted in the deaths of 20,709 people, which is 14.2 per cent of the total number of people killed in road accidents in 2015.
In Delhi, perceived as a rough city with rich kids (often underage) zooming their luxury cars through the capital's streets, here's how the scary data for 2015 stacks up: 631 people killed in hit-and-run crimes out of a total of 2,042 cases - a staggering 30 per cent of all road accident deaths in a year. The total number of persons injured in Delhi hit-and-runs in 2015 stands at 1,682.
The report for 2015 also says, "Within the category of drivers’ fault, road accidents caused and persons killed due to exceeding lawful speed/over speeding by drivers accounted for a share of 62.2 per cent accidents (2,40,463 out of 3,86,481) and 61.0 per cent deaths (64,633 out of 1,06,021) respectively."
Piyush Tewari, founder and CEO of SaveLifeFoundation, says: "The Janak Puri drunk-driving hit-and-run case clearly demonstrates the failure of traffic enforcement in Delhi. The traffic police disappears on most roads after midnight. Should this be allowed? This, despite several high-profile cases in the past few years alone. This incident also calls out for urgent strengthening of our road safety legislation, which has failed to create enough deterrents for violators, many of who feel they can get away with a small fine if caught."
While enforcement remains literally the difference between life and death, it's worth noting once again that it was a bike-borne traffic cop who chased the runaway Honda City and risked his life to bring the murderous driver to a stop.