Man supervising highway repair in Gurugram crushed under grinding machine

A 40-year-old man who was supervising repairs on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway at Bilaspur Chowk was killed in a freak accident when he got crushed under a grinding machine, police said on Saturday, adding that the operator of the machine is on the run.

The victim was identified as Mahesh Kant, of Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand. He was a labour supervisor for the firm that was repairing the highway from Kherki Daula to Shahjahanpur.

The incident took place at 4.30pm on Thursday when Kant was supervising the workers. A grinder machine weighing several tonnes was reversing behind him but Kant did not notice or hear it due to the extreme noise of several heavy equipment at the site, police said. The machine’s operator also did not see Kant standing behind the machine, they added.

Other workers, however, raised the alarm but by the time the operator stopped the machine, Kant was already crushed beneath it, a senior police officer said.

“The operator had to move the machine forward so the workers could pull Kant out,” the officer said. The contractors at the spot arranged an ambulance and immediately rushed Kant to the civil hospital in Gurugram Sector 10A where he was declared dead, police said. “Kant was badly injured at the spot and probably died within a few minutes of the accident,” the officer said.

Police said that the hospital authorities told them about the accident and one of the workers later informed Kant’s family.

Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said that they will take action against the machine operator. “He fled from the spot after the accident. We have asked the contractor to give us his details,” he added.

Based on a complaint from the victim’s younger brother Gajendra Kant, a first information report was registered against the operator at Bilaspur police station on Friday under Sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Kant’s body was handed over to his family after an autopsy.