At least 14 workers died and 50 others were injured in traffic accidents in India as citizens were compelled to return home from big cities due to the swift imposition of a coronavirus-related lockdown, media reported on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2020) At least 14 workers died and 50 others were injured in traffic accidents in India as citizens were compelled to return home from big cities due to the swift imposition of a coronavirus-related lockdown, media reported on Thursday.
When India enforced lockdown in late March, thousands of daily wage workers living in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai flocked back to rural areas to make it on time before their home towns close down. Those who could afford it packed themselves into trains and buses, while the poorer ones had no other choice but to walk their way back.
Turkish Anadolu Agency said, citing Indian police officials, that six workers were run over by a government-operated bus while walking along a highway in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Five others were reportedly seriously injured in a traffic accident on the Delhi - Saharanpur highway near the city of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. According to the police official, cited in the report, they were heading to their native village in the eastern state of Bihar from the northern Punjab state � a journey of some 930 miles.
The driver of the bus that had hit them was arrested on the spot and is now facing criminal liability, the police official was cited as saying.
Another road accident in the central state of Madhya Pradesh resulted in the death of eight workers, while 45 were injured. The workers were reportedly en route to their villages in Uttar Pradesh from the western state of Maharashtra when their truck colluded with a bus.
A police official was cited by Anadolu as saying that the truck was packed beyond capacity and that each worker had to pay the driver 3,000 Indian rupees ($40) as other transportation means have become largely unavailable.
India is now divided into red, orange, and green zones depending on the rate of infection in each locality. Public transport, factories, and shops are allowed to operate with certain restrictions in the green and orange zones.
As of Thursday, there have been 78,003 confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection in India, including 2,549 fatalities and 26,234 recoveries.
The central state of Maharashtra with confirmed 25,922 cases remains the most affected region. It is followed by the western state of Gujarat, with 9,267 cases, and the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with 9,227 cases.
