Bengaluru: Two salesmen die after ambulance hits scooter

BENGALURU: Two 28-year-old salesmen were killed after their scooter collided with an ambulance that was speeding in the wrong lane on Intermediate Ring Road on Tuesday evening.

Mohammed Mansoor and Ibrahim Khaleel, from Nagavara, were riding towards Domlur when the accident occurred around 6.45pm, police said. Mansoor was from Bengaluru. Khaleel, his relative, had come to the city in search of a job in November.

After the accident, the ambulance driver fled the scene leaving behind the vehicle. Public alerted the police control room as well as the ambulance service to arrange for the shifting of the patient in the vehicle and the injured scooterists.

The scooterists were shifted to Manipal Hospitals around 7.30pm and succumbed to head injuries on Wednesday morning.

Ambulance was in the wrong lane

The ambulance driver, Abhishek R, 27, was arrested on Wednesday. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him in judicial custody. Police said the ambulance was carrying a male patient from Manipal Hospitals to St John’s hospital.

“It was peak-hour traffic. The driver entered the carriageway on the right side of the road and was moving in

the wrong direction. After 300 metres, he rammed the scooter. Mansoor was riding the scooter on right edge of the carriageway and failed to notice the ambulance,” police said.

Eyewitnesses said the ambulance’s siren and emergency lights were on.

“It’s a case of rash and negligent driving. An ambulance driver cannot throw rules to the wind,” joint commissioner of police (traffic) BR Ravikanthe Gowda said.