Red signal saved our lives: Eyewitness on speeding car falling from Hyd flyover

HYDERABAD: The accident that left a woman bystander dead, and three others including her daughter severely injured, could have created more destruction if it had happened on a weekday.

There were only four autos and very few people at the auto stand at the time of the incident and if the signal at the junction was not red, many more lives would have been lost.

The usually busy Hitec X roads auto stand located at the Biodiversity junction on the road towards IKEA, became a pile of branches from an uprooted tree on the roadside, as wreckage of the car plunged from the flyover, footwear of the victims and damaged windowpanes of the car and four other cars scattered all over.

Auto driver M Balaraju, who was injured in the mishap, said that he was waiting at the auto stand, when he saw the car crashing down from the flyover. “All of us ran for safety, but the car landed on the tree, uprooting it and injuring us. I managed to run, but one of the wheels from the vehicle hit my back and I fell to the ground,” Balaraju said after being discharged from hospital. His brother M Narayana, who is also an auto driver witnessed the car falling to the ground.

He was waiting at the signal on the other side of the road. “Many vehicles had stopped at the junction because of red signal. If it had happened a few seconds before or after, more lives could have been lost. May be the red signal had saved all our lives,” he said.

Two more drivers Pandu and Kranti received injuries from scattered window panes of the car. Kranti’s auto was completely damaged in the accident. “I have rented this auto from my brother-in-law, and it is my only livelihood.

This accident has completely destroyed my livelihood. I am worried about how to run my family now,” he said.

Another victim K Kubra, from Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, recently completed engineering and had come to the city ten days ago in search of a job. She was at the spot, on her way to attend an interview.