Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Apr 22: After a tipper, which was being recklessly driven by a driver, pulled to ground several electrical poles including an electric transformer at Konchar on Bajpe-Kalavar Road, some colonies and villages faced the need to live without power for two to three days. The incident occurred on Friday April 20 evening.

A catastrophe was averted, as Mescom had severed power supply to this line at this time, to conduct repair works.

Otherwise, the power lines, which fell on four women, Yashoda, Meenakshi, Vedavati, and Harinakshi, who were waiting for bus at Konchar bus shelter at the time, would have left a trail of devastation and destruction. These women had a miraculous escape as a result.

After dumping sand at MRPL-ONGC Rehabilitation Colony, the tipper was returning to undertake another trip. The driver, however, had not brought down the dumper container of the vehicle that had been hydraulically jacked up at the time of  emptying mud, before undertaking return trip. The container dragged away the electric cables passing over the road, as a result of which a transformer and eight electric poles got uprooted.

The driver of the truck fled from the scene immediately after the accident. No one else was present in the tipper at the time, eyewitnesses said. The driver’s negligence will deprive Konchar, Shantigude, Kalavar and some other places in the vicinity of this accident site of power supply for a few days before new poles are erected, and transformer is installed, Mescom sources said.

A complaint against the tipper truck driver was registered in this connection against the errant driver at Bajpe police station.