NEW DELHI: Krishan Pal paid a high price for conscientiously obeying the traffic rules. He had stopped his scooter at a traffic light in Chhatarpur in south Delhi when a DTC bus, ignoring the red light, came at full speed and hit the two wheeler on which Pal and his wife were riding.A dazed 50-year-old Pal told TOI that he and his wife Renu, 45, were returning home to Nangal Rai from a temple in Chhatarpur around 9.30pm on February 24. “I was riding a scooter. When we arrived at the Masoodpur traffic light, I stopped and waited for the light to turn green. Suddenly, a DTC bus came from behind and hit my two wheeler,” Pal said.The bus stopped a few metres away and its driver fled. When Pal picked himself up after a few minutes, he found his wife missing. “A person told me that a woman seemed stuck beneath the bus. I reached down and saw my wife’s hand. I recognised it as hers because she was wearing a black kurta suit,” said Pal. He requested people to help him move the bus and some people did step forward, but the bus was too heavy for them to push away. Later, after a crane arrived, the wife was freed, but by then it was too late to save her life.With moist eyes, Pal expressed grief at having lost his wife in a road accident despite having followed the traffic rules. “We were both wearing helmets. I was not speeding. I stopped at the traffic light. I followed all the rules but lost my wife,” he said mournfully.Pal’s elder son, Anuj, revealed that his mother used to run a cosmetics business from a shop in Nangal Rai. “My parents had put their life savings into starting the shop and she worked hard every day. It was on her earnings that our family of five, including my grandmother, lived,” said Anuj.March 20 was the older son’s birthday and Renu had planned a celebration. “Like all mothers, she wanted her son to have a good day on his birthday, but her death has changed everything,” said Pal.According to family members, they have not received any calls from the authorities about any action in the case. Manoj C, DCP (Southwest), said that Mohit, 30, who worked as a temporary driver for DTC for the past three years, has been arrested. DTC buses were involved in 37 accidents that took a toll of 39 people in 2022, the highest in the last four years.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/red-light-doesnt-stop-bus-2-wheeler-rider-loses-wife/articleshow/98316747.cms
