Jaipur accident: Had a close shave with death, recalls cop in hospital

JAIPUR: Fifty-year-old assistant sub-inspector Ram Swaroop Meena has got four of his ribs fractured. Five of his teeth have gotten uprooted. He could not open his left eye. Swelling on his face and his torn uniform are enough signs to describe the fatal accident he met with post Monday midnight, in which he had a close shave with death.
“When I stopped an autorickshaw for checking as a routine drive on JLN Road near Fortis Hospital, I had no idea what was going to happen the next moment, at around 12.30am.Till then, everything was normal,” said Meena, who was undergoing treatment at Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics (ITO) of Sawai Man Singh Hospital on Tuesday.
Meena was posted at a barricade with a police team comprising ASI (traffic) Jai Prakash, constables Kartaar, Sunil, Malkhe Ram from 10pm to 4am for checking drunk driving and other routine checkings. “A speeding luxury SUV crashed into the barricades first. It hit the autorickshaw already stopped by us and the autorickshaw and the barricades hit us forcefully. I was dragged with the autorickshaw for some feet. It all happened so quickly, giving us no time to react. I had a close shave with death,” said Meena.
All the vehicles involved in the accident were badly damaged. “What I could see was that parts of the autorickshaw and the SUV littered the road,” said Meena. After the accident, Meena could hardly move. The passers-by and two policemen who suffered minor injuries helped their injured colleagues to reach the hospital. Another injured Jai Prakash narrated the horrific incident, which he was a witness to. “What I remember is that I was standing near the divider. I heard the sound from the mishap and got hit by something severely. I do not know what injured me, but it hit me with a strong force. I went unconscious and when I gained consciousness, I was already in SMS Hospital,” said Jai Prakash. Prakash has sustained head injury, along with an injury on his left eye.