MUMBAI: A driver and cleaner have been arrested for the death of an aggregate cab driver, who was crushed under a massive piece of industrial machinery that toppled from a trailer onto his Ertiga, on BPT Road in Wadala in the early hours on Friday.
Wadala police arrested and the released the trailer driver and cleaner, and booked the executives of the shipping and transport company, and the importer of the machine part that was being transported from the Mumbai port to a factory in Surat.
The accident occurred when the trailer hit a rough stretch, causing the 40-tonne machine part to break free of its moorings and crash onto the Ertiga being driven by 28-year-old Mohammad Zameer Hassenuddhin, 28. The cab driver had dropped off a passenger in Sewri and was on his way to Chembur when the accident took place.
Wadala police said executives of the shipping and transport company, and the importer of the heavy machine part, have been booked under sections of 125 (acts endangering life or personal safety of others), section 281 (rash driving) and section 106 (causing death by negligence) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and sections of the Motor Vehicles Act. Police are tracing the companies to get in touch with them.
“We arrested the trailer driver Shriram Hiralal Rawat, 25, and cleaner Sagar Rajrup Rawat, 19, and booked them with the same offences as the executives. We allowed them to go after issuing them notices of appearance,” said a police officer from Wadala police station.
Police said the stretch of road where the accident took place is rough and patchy as it is frequently used by heavy vehicles transporting goods from the port to various destinations. It took six hours for three cranes to lift the massive machine part and extract the driver from the mangled Ertiga. He was declared dead on arrival at KEM Hospital.
“The machinery was not properly secured to the trailer and the cleaner failed to keep an eye on it. As a result, he did not notice that the chain securing it had come loose. The driver too was negligent as he was driving in the fast lane even though heavy vehicles are supposed to drive in the left, or slow lane,” said a police officer.
Police said the deceased, Hassenuddhin, was a resident of Bandra Kurla Complex, where he lived with his brother-in-law, Mohammad Hamza Mohammed Hassad, also an aggregator cab driver. The body of the cabbie has been taken to his hometown, Kaushambi district in Uttar Pradesh, for last rites.