Children have narrow escape in Bangalore

Scores of school-going children and residents had a providential escape when a tempo ran into a dangling overhead electrical cable that was being installed amid a clutch of live transmission wires in front of SG International School in 10th A Cross in Nandini Layout at 9am on Tuesday.

The overhead electrical cable was lying across the road when the tempo ran into it and pulled it along for nearly 50 metres. The man who was installing the wire by sitting atop a pole by the roadside, fell down and suffered a hand fracture.

The overhead cable being laid, however, did not come in contact with the live wires, which could have resulted in huge casualties as scores of children, accompanied by their parents and guardians, were crossing the road on their way to school when the mishap happened.

The work taken up was, ostensibly, for streetlights. It was being carried without any warning signboards around and even as people and vehicles were moving below.

“If the snapped wire which was dragged for some distance by the goods transport vehicle had come in contact with live wires, that would have posed a huge danger to the passersby,” said K Harsha, a resident of the locality.

A housewife in the locality, Ashalatha, said that the incident happened at a time when the children were hurrying to get into the school across the road. “The wire fell right across the road during the school timings. Several parents had come in their vehicles to drop off their children. I feel the BBMP and its officials are always trying to kill children, like in the case of Abhishek and Sanjana,” she said.

As the matter went to the police, sub-contractor Nanjundaswamy said that he had been asked to lay the overhead cables by the contractor, Shah Electricals of RT Nagar, on orders from BBMP engineers.