Rickshaw driver saves himself by jumping out of his damaged vehicle
Report and Pictures by Eugene Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network
Moodubelle, 25 May 2010: Rickshaw driver Umesh Naik who was waiting for the passengers at the Indrali Railway station was very happy early in the morning of Tuesday, 25 May 2010, that he got passengers who hired his rickshaw up to Belman. After dropping his passengers at their destination, Umesh was on his way back to Udupi when his rickshaw was severely hit by a tipper which all of a sudden, without any warning took reverse and hit the rickshaw of Umesh Naik who was just behind the tipper near the Alevoor bridge at around 10 am. The windscreen of the rickshaw was shattered and Umesh barely managed to save his life by just jumping out of the damaged rickshaw at the nick of the time. However, in this process he got bruises on one of his fore arms.
According to Umesh, the tipper came face to face with a Maruti Omni and both the vehicles halted as there was no enough room for manoeuvring due to the slop on both sides of the road. In order to make room for the Omni to pass, the driver of the tipper, Seenappa Shetty, without realising that there was a rickshaw just behind his vehicle, reversed the tipper in spite of Umesh frantically blowing the horn to draw the attention of the tipper driver. But the damage was already done and Umesh in a split second decision jumped out of his rickshaw and thus saved himself from major injuries.
After some time quite a number of people had gathered near the site of the accident. By the time this reporter who was on his way to Udupi left the accident site, some of those present at the accident site were trying to mediate and settle the issue by suggesting to the driver of the tipper that he should pay appropriate compensation to the rickshaw driver, Umesh for the damage that his had suffered, rather than taking the matter to the police.