Wire snaps on Mumbai highway, slits biker's neck

Mumbai: Wearing a helmet is just not enough for two-wheeler riders these days as danger lurks in arcane ways on the city's highways. In a bizarre incident on Western Express Highway yesterday, a 27-year-old biker was killed after an overhead metal wire snapped, slitting his throat.

The deceased, Israr Ahmed Khan, who worked at an electric works shop owned by his brother, was returning home around 5 pm from Marol along with his employee Ram Bhavan Pal (20), when the popped cable struck him. Khan sustained a fatal wound on his neck, while pillion rider Pal received cuts on his face and hands.

1. Israr Ahmed Khan, with Ram Bhavan Pal riding pillion on his bike, enters the Western Express Highway, headed for home in Nallasopara

2. Suddenly an overhead metal wire snaps and strikes Khan on the neck. Pal too is hit by the cable and receives injuries to his face and hands

3. Both men fall to the ground and the bike is dragged for about 50 metres. While Khan was fast losing blood with his throat slit, Pal regained his bearings in a few minutes and took the former to a hospital

"After finishing an assignment at a housing colony in Marol, we were riding back home to Nallasopara via the highway amongst the usual evening office traffic, when all of a sudden a metal wire struck us," Pal told MiD DAY. "When I regained my bearings, I was terrified to notice that Khan's throat was slit and he was bleeding profusely. Luckily, I escaped with a cut on my face and other minor injuries from the very same wire."

Pal rushed Khan, who was still alive, to a private hospital nearby, where he was denied admission. Panic-stricken, Pal then took the still breathing Khan to Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle. However, he was declared dead on arrival. Authorities at the hospital's post mortem centre later confirmed that Khan's death was caused by shock due to multiple injuries.

Precious time lost
A disheartened Zameel Ahmed Khan, brother of the deceased, said, "My brother was denied admission at a private hospital where he was first taken. There they flatly said that they could not take such a serious case. This delay later proved to be fatal for my brother. Immediate medical attention could have saved his life."

A local shopkeeper at the site of the incident, requesting anonymity, said, "The wire, which was originally suspended over the streetlight poles, suddenly gave way and descended to the street below. Almost simultaneously, the motorcycle drove up the highway and the rider was struck across the neck, causing the bike to skid along the road for around 50 metres."

Sub-inspector Chandrakant Khanvilkar from Jogeshwari police station said, "We are investigating the nature of the wire, who installed it there, and the reason why it snapped. Currently we have registered an offence under section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (causing death by negligence)."

SC verdict on treatment of accident victims
According to the Supreme Court, every injured citizen brought for medical treatment should instantaneously be given medical aid to preserve life and thereafter the procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate in order to avoid negligent death.

There is no legal impediment for a medical professional when he is called upon or requested to attend to an injured person needing his medical assistance immediately.

The effort to save the person should be the top priority not only of the medical professional but even of the police or any other citizen who happens to be connected with that matter or who happens to notice such an incident or a situation

There are no provisions in the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Motor Vehicles Act, which prevent doctors from promptly attending to serious injured persons and accident cases before arrival of the police and their taking into cognizance of such cases, preparation of FIR and other formalities by police.