Thane: A 58-year-old doctor, Dr. Naseem Ansari, tragically lost his life after his scooter hit a pothole, causing him to fall and get crushed by a truck in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi town in Thane district, police said on Sunday. The accident occurred near Vanjar Patti Naka late on Friday night.

Dr. Ansari was returning home on his scooter when he unexpectedly lost control after hitting a pothole, leading to him falling onto the road. A container truck passing behind him ran over him, crushing him under its rear wheels. Locals rushed the injured doctor to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. The entire incident was captured on CCTV and quickly went viral online, sparking widespread public outrage.

Residents of Bhiwandi staged protests demanding accountability over poor road conditions and alleged civic negligence. They claimed that ongoing repairs on the APJ Abdul Kalam Flyover forced heavy vehicles to divert onto city roads, which are in a degraded state, creating dangerous traffic conditions. The Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation’s Public Relations Officer, Shrikant Pardeshi, responded that road repairs could only be carried out at night to minimise daytime disruption.

The truck driver, Mohammad Bilal Mohammed Aslam, has been arrested by police, and investigations into the incident are underway. Senior Police Inspector Vishwas Dagale clarified that the truck did not hit the doctor directly; it was the unsafe road condition caused by the pothole that led to the fatal accident.

Local MLA Rais Shaikh has demanded the filing of FIRs against civic officials responsible for road maintenance and warned of large-scale protests if the pothole-ridden roads remain unrepaired. This tragic event has intensified calls from citizens for immediate action to improve road safety and infrastructure in the area.

With inputs from PTI