by Marie Kauna – EMTV Online, Port Moresby
India’s potholes, which many have come to label killer craters are quickly becoming a major problem in and around many of the country’s largest cities.
According to India’s official statistics, about 150,000 people die on Indian roads each year, with hundreds of thousands injured and most of these deaths caused due to poor driving.
Last week, a 20-year-old woman died after crashing her motorbike trying to avoid a pothole in the city of Bengaluru. Again this week, workers who didn’t notice an unconscious man at the bottom of a pothole, found 45-year-old Latori Barman dead after being buried alive.
According to an investigating officer the workers must not have not noticed him while filling the pothole with bitumen. The workers also used a heavy roller to flatten the surface.
Barman’s body was recognised when the residents discovered his arm’s sticking out from the road.
Police have arrested several of the road workers for questioning as officials in Katni, the central state of Madhya Pradesh, conduct investigations.
The death of Barman now adds to India’s killer crater deaths. Officials have promised to compensate the late Barman’s widow.
