Nine-year-old Ramya, who was travelling in a car hit by a drunk driver, is critical, on the ventilator in the intensive care unit at Hyderabad's Care Hospital. She is not in a state in which surgery is possible and doctors are losing hope. The police say not only was Shravil drunk, he did not even have a driving licence. On the busy Banjara Hills road, he was speeding at 70 km/hour. Hyderabad figures high in cases of drunken driving. Its traffic police books approximately 1200 cases of drunken driving every month
Their paths crossed in a manner they never should have.
On Friday afternoon, 20-year-old Shravil and his five friends planned to watch a movie at Cinemax multiplex in Banjara Hills area of Hyderabad. They did not get the tickets so instead they hit a bar at around 3.30 pm and an hour later, when they left, were inebriated and clearly not in a state to drive the i10. The car belonged to another friend, Ashwin's father. A drunk Shravil was at the wheel.
At around the same time, in another part of Hyderabad, nine-year-old Ramya and her family had checked out a house in Marredpally area of Secunderabad where they wanted to shift to. That was because Ramya had taken admission in St Ann School in Marredpally, and it was her first day in the new school. Her family had surprised the young one by coming to the school to take her home.
The two cars crossed each other on Road No. 3 in Banjara Hills. The speeding i10 hit the road divider, flipped on to the other side of the road and crashed on the Santro car in which the family was going home. Ramya's 35-year-old uncle, Rajesh who was driving, died on the spot while the child and her mother suffered serious injuries. Ramya's grandfather and another uncle have suffered multiple fractures and are in hospital.
Ramya is critical, on the ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit at Hyderabad's Care Hospital. She was not in a state in which surgery was possible and the doctors have now declared her brain dead.
In fact, Rajesh, a software engineer was to leave for the US on Sunday. He has left behind his son, who is yet to turn two.
Shravil has been arrested and booked under 304 B (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The police say not only was Shravil drunk, he did not even have a driving licence. On the busy Banjara Hills road, he was speeding at 70 km/hour.
This would have been passed off as just another accident that one sees regularly on city roads if it was not for the tragedy it unleashed in a matter of seconds. “Our family is ruined,” cries out Rajesh's father-in-law. “Everything has collapsed.” The happy family pictures now reduced to nothing.
Hyderabad figures high in cases of drunken driving. Its traffic police books approximately 1200 cases of drunken driving every month, with most of those caught inebriated below the age of 35 years. “Unlike other cities which only impose a fine, we also send 20% of the cases to jail for a day. In 2015, some 2900 persons were imprisoned,” says Jitender, Hyderabad's traffic police commissioner.
But clearly people do not learn lessons from the tragedies they read about in the newspapers every day. While Jitender says the cases of drunken driving among white collar people have seen a 30% dip over last year, with many of them choosing to take cabs if inebriated, parents encouraging their underage children to drive cars or ride bikes has also seen an increase.
Irresponsible parents do not realise they are handing over a licence to kill to the minor and should be booked. Rajesh's unnecessary death and Ramya's present state has to be a wake-up call. Make an example of this case by throwing the law at the accused and making him pay.
