Published Jul 17, 2023 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 17, 2023 | 8:00 AM
Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty with students of Government Girls High School, Cotton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram. (VSivankuttyCPIM/Twitter)
A five-day-old road accident in which an escort vehicle accompanying Kerala’s School Education Minister V Sivankutty crashed into a hospital-bound ambulance carrying a critical patient is taking a curious turn.
The ambulance driver is preparing for a legal battle against the minister, his escorts, the state government, and the police for harassing him — and for twisting facts and misusing power.
The driver has been made an accused in the case related to the accident at Pullaman Junction in Kottarakkara in the Kollam district. However, he claimed that in no way had he contributed to the accident.
Meanwhile, there was outrage against the accident on social media, with many people condemning it and calling VIPs to follow traffic rules.
#WATCH | Kollam, Kerala: Case registered against drivers of an ambulance and Police vehicle after the ambulance collided with Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty's pilot vehicle.
3 people who were inside the ambulance were injured in the incident pic.twitter.com/LX2X8BUFwc
— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2023
The visuals of the accident, which were captured on surveillance cameras and then shared widely on social media, created large-scale outrage.
The viral clip showed the pilot vehicle coming from another direction and crashing into the ambulance that was crossing the circle, causing it to overturn.
The pilot vehicle later collided with a motorcycle, leading to its fall, but the person who occupied it escaped unhurt.
The police officer at the signal could be seen standing by the ambulance. He was the traffic personnel on duty, but he apparently ran away.
As the ambulance overturned, all the passengers were injured. They were subsequently admitted to a private hospital in Kottarakkara.
When the accident occurred, the minister was travelling from Kottayam to Thiruvananthapuram via MC Road.
He later said he accompanied the victims to the hospital after the accident. However, the victims refuted the claims, saying he did not visit them.
Those who were injured in the incident are now under treatment in a Kottarakkara hospital, the police confirmed.
The accident scene at Kottarakkara
Accusing the minister and the police of misusing their powers to twist facts and to make him an accused, the driver of the ambulance has now approached Kerala High Court seeking quashing of the FIR, as well as action against those who conspired against him.
The driver said he would not rest till he got justice, and the legal war would go to any extent, even if it meant approaching the Supreme Court.
The Kerala Ambulance Emergency Response Team (KAERT) and the Ambulance Owners and Drivers Association of Kerala (AODAK) have also emerged on the scene, extending financial and legal support to the driver.
They pointed out that it was the speeding police escort vehicle that hit the ambulance by violating the traffic signal.
This, they said, led to the accident in which the patient, her relatives, and the ambulance driver were injured. The ambulance, which flipped over in the incident, was also severely damaged.
Now the registering of the FIR against the injured ambulance driver had created a situation in which neither the driver nor the ambulance was getting any insurance coverage.
The police claimed there was no discrimination, and cases had been registered against the drivers of both the escort jeep and the ambulance based on circumstantial evidence, and only a detailed investigation could determine who was guilty.
The ambulance driver, however, alleged that the mishap occurred due to the negligent and rash driving of the police jeep.
He also alleged that the minister’s office had started influencing some of the witnesses of the incident to dilute the charges against the driver of the escort jeep.
Meanwhile, the police claimed the ambulance driver was speeding through a traffic junction without checking whether he had the signal to do so, and this caused the accident.
The police also claimed that the CCTV visuals of the accident clearly showed that the officer on traffic duty had stopped traffic briefly to allow the escort vehicle and the minister’s car to pass through.
“However, the ambulance driver, on reaching the traffic junction, sped through without checking if he had the signal to do so,” said the cops.
Police officials also rejected the ambulance driver’s claim before a TV channel that when his brother complained about the incident, the police were rude and misbehaved with him.
They said that the owner of the ambulance had come to the station, and he was shown the CCTV footage to make it clear who was at fault.
The cops said the case was registered based on the statement of the patient’s husband, Ashok Kumar.
Ashok Kumar said that he suffered a fracture in the accident.
“We expected that the minister would come and find out what had happened to us, but he left the spot in a few minutes,” said Ashok.
A news report quoted the ambulance driver saying soon after the incident that, though he was injured, the police and other officials misbehaved with him.
The report said when the ambulance driver approached the police to register a complaint, he got a dressing down from the police officers.
“The police behaved rudely with me and said I should dump my vehicle (ambulance). They said I had broken the rules as the traffic signal was off, and in that situation, I should not have gone forward as a minister was coming. The traffic warden at the junction seeing my ambulance, had given me the signal to move forward,” said the driver.
