Outrage as Kerala minister’s speeding pilot car hits ambulance

Thiruvananthapuram, July 13 (IANS) A day after the pilot vehicle of a Kerala minister hit an ambulance toppling it over, there is outrage with many people condemning it and calling for the VIPs to follow the traffic rules.

The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon when the speeding pilot jeep of Education Minister V. Sivankutty, breaking all traffic rules and taking the wrong side, hit an ambulance carrying a patient to a hospital at the busy Kottarakara junction about 70 kms from the state capital city.

The impact of the crash was such that the ambulance overturned injuring the five passengers. After the crash, Sivankutty came out of his vehicle and after observing what was happening for a few minutes continued his journey to Thiruvananthapuram.

Ashok Kumar, whose wife was being moved from a hospital to the Taluk hospital at Kottarakara, said that he suffered a fracture in the accident.

“ We expected that the minister would come and find out what had happened to us but he left the spot in a few minutes,” said Kumar.

What was worse was that the local police failed to even register a case and when the driver of the ambulance approached the police to register a complaint he got a dressing down from the cops.

“ The police behaved very rudely with me and said I should dump my vehicle ( ambulance ).They said I had broken rules as the traffic signal was put off and in that situation, how could I go forward, as a minister was coming. In fact the traffic warden at the junction seeing my ambulance had given me the signal that I could move forward,” said the driver.

#WATCH | Kollam, Kerala: Case registered against drivers of an ambulance and Police vehicle after the ambulance hit Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty's pilot vehicle.

3 people who were inside the ambulance were injured in the incident pic.twitter.com/hiV51yLrRy

— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2023

With the TV channels on Thursday making this rash behavior of the police and the way Sivankutty left the spot an issue, the police on Thursday afternoon registered a case and charged the driver of the pilot jeep and the ambulance driver.

Dijo Kappen, an expert on the Transportation and Motor Vehicles Act, said even though VIP’s, ministers and others are a busy lot, under the Motor Vehicles Act 1989 ( Amendment) privilege of movement on the road is given to just fire engines and ambulances and none else.

“ The sad fact is those who frame the laws in the Assembly or in Parliament are the ones who break them. Nowhere else do we find such blatant violation of traffic rules,” said Kappen.

Sivankutty is yet to react to this incident.

--IANS

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