Srinagar, Feb 5: A load carrier auto-rickshaw was crushed to wreckage and its driver critically wounded Sunday morning when the cab collided with a truck at faulty Sanat Nagar square, which government admits is risk prone, but has failed to take any remedial measures.
 Javed Ahmed son of Abdul Rashid of Chadoora was crushed in his load carrier (JK01L 4351) while heading towards Rawal Pora when hit by a truck heading towards north on the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad highway junction in south City, reports and witnesses said.
 Finding the rickshaw crushed the people at once rushed towards the spot –in the middle of the highway –only to find the driver lying in a pool of blood while the road beneath in no time turned red.
 “It took around 10 minutes to take out the wounded driver from the auto wreckage as the cab was badly crushed and we couldn’t find an easy way out for him till one of the doors was forcibly pulled out by many of us,” said a local who along with others, including traffic cops pulled the dying man out of the wreckage. The wounded, bleeding profusely, was rushed to hospital.
 Given the fact that the allegedly ill designed square has been a cause of frequent accidents, the locals including shopkeepers poured in on the highway and started criticizing the National Conference led government for failing to take any remedial measures.
 Fearing trouble, some cops at once covered the auto-wreckage with a yellow polythene sheet, which was covering the orange boxes loaded in the rare, on the wet day as the downpour continued.
 The locals accused the government of “criminal slumber” in getting rid of the faulty square, constructed some six years back during widening of the national highway from two to four lanes. Since then around a dozen people have died there, while mishaps happen to be a routine.
 “Just last evening a Maruti 800 was about to get crushed down by a speeding truck. But luck saved the driver,” the locals said.
 The last reported death on the busy square occurred on Oct 29, 2011 when  Muhammad Ibrahim Dar son of Muhammad Abdullah Dar of Kukarnag was mowed down by a mini bus.
 Even though the government has been admitting that the square design is faulty and that there was a need to construct a flyover instead, there has been no breakthrough.
 “Government silence coupled with its inability to come up with a solution to this deadly issue seems to be a deep rooted conspiracy against the people of Kashmir making them vulnerable to deadly accidents everyday,” said a local adding that since last year alone he has been witness to around 40 accidents in the area.
 Meanwhile police claimed to have filed a case and arrested the accused truck driver while his vehicle was seized. “The fuel tank of the truck got damaged in the collision and it had to stop, otherwise like most other cases, this too would remain a mysterious hit-and-run case,” said a local who along with others had chased the vehicle to some distance till it applied breaks and was caught.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST