A 20-year-old college student on a two-wheeler died in Bengaluru on Monday morning after being run over by a speeding truck near Budigere Cross, raising concerns about road safety and infrastructure in the city’s eastern suburbs.
The police identified the deceased as Dhanushree, a second-year BCom student at a private college in KR Pura. A resident of Virgonagar, Dhanushree stayed in Bhuvaneshwari Layout with her single mother and two sisters.
The incident took place at around 8.30 am when Dhanushree was heading to college. According to the police, a speeding truck struck her vehicle just metres away from Bhuvaneshwari Enclave. The impact threw her into the middle of the road, where the truck’s wheels ran over her head, killing her instantly, the police said. The driver immediately fled the scene.
Conflicting accounts have emerged about what caused the accident. A resident from Bhuvaneshwari Layout in Bengaluru has claimed that Dhanushree was flung off her two-wheeler while attempting to negotiate a pothole. The police are investigating the claim.
Following a complaint filed by Dhanushree’s mother, the police registered a case against the unidentified truck driver under Section 106 (causing death due to negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Civic authorities have not been named in the complaint.
The body was returned to the family after the post-mortem examination.
Meanwhile, locals who gathered at the accident site blamed the road conditions. The Mahadevapura Task Force, a volunteer organisation backed by local MLA Manjula Limbavali, attributed the pothole crisis to insufficient funding for the public works department to conduct repairs.