Woman dies in cab accident, driver 'completes trip', charges her 

Top Stories

Woman dies in cab accident, driver completes trip, charges her 

The accident took place as the over speeding driver rammed into a garbage van.

By Web Report

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Fri 13 Jul 2018, 2:13 PM

Last updated: Fri 13 Jul 2018, 4:31 PM

A 35-year-old woman travelling in an Uber cab was killed after the over speeding driver rammed a wrongly parked garbage van near Mumbai.
Tanzila Shaikh, died a horrific death in the accident that occurred on June 14, while the Uber driver, Inderjeet Singh Bhatti, escaped unscathed. Bhatti, who managed to get a bail the next day, had been penalised twice for speeding just two months before the accident.
A month since the tragedy occurred, the horrors of the accident are still haunting the grieving Shaikh family. According to Tanzila's husbandMuzammil the family started receiving unwarranted calls from motor vehicle insurance agents and lawyers telling to register a case with the Motor Vehicle Tribunal. They demanded 21 per cent of the compensation amount as fees. "We were shocked to hear that they had been referred by the sub-inspector probing the case and the postmortem centre at RajawadiHospital," said Muzammil, while talking to Mid-day
The grieving husband added, "The post mortem report said some foreign object [a piece of glass or wiper] had pierced deep into her brain resulting in immediate death. Both her eyes had sunk into their sockets due to the impact, indicating the driver was speeding."
If this was not enough, the Shaikh family later learnt that Uber had debited Rs 568.10 from Tanzila's Paytm account despite the journey never having been completed. However, Uber promptly refunded the amount. "I spoke to her over the phone to check if she would be returning to Airoli or going straight home. She said she would let me know in a while. An hour later I got a call about the accident. We were to pick up our son from the day care centre and go Eid shopping," said Muzammil. "My son still dials his mother's number hoping she will pick it up. We have not told him yet that she is no more," the grieving father added.
On penalising the errant driver, Akhilesh Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 7), said, "We will be writing to the traffic department and RTO requesting them to take necessary action including revoking the licence of the driver." While, an Uber spokesperson said, "Our hearts go out to the victim, the driver partner and their families. We immediately removed the driver partner's access to the app. We continue to stand ready to extend support to the police investigation in every way possible."
The driver who was let off on bail of Rs15,000 claimed he was driving at less than 60 kmph when his cab rammed the garbage van as its back portion was jutting out. He added that the windshield smashed and pierced the front seat, hitting Tanzila straight in the face. "I was wearing a seatbelt, so was not harmed. The public immediately pulled us out and the police arrived and took us to hospital," Bhatti was quoted as saying in the daily. 


More news from