Jaipur’s JDA Circle is not a roundabout, as the name would suggest, but rather a massive intersection between two multi-lane highways. The massive building of the Jaipur Development Authority is located at the traffic junction, but none of the city's urban planners have been able to put an end to the traffic nightmare at their doorstep, which has claimed two lives in two accidents occurring just one day apart from each other.
In one of the incidents, according to CCTV footage that surfaced on social media on Friday, scooter driver Abhay Dagar was flung into the air and flew about 9 metres (30 feet) when a speeding Audi, coming from another side of the junction, hit his scooter on Friday.
Dagar’s body bounced before landing in the middle of the road, leaving him critically wounded; most of the the other cars at the scene sped away, including the alleged perpetrator.
The Audi’s driver Siddharth Sharma fled the scene of the accident just after allegedly hitting the biker. However, he was quickly apprehended by police and his car has been confiscated.
In a separate incident which occurred at the same place on the previous day, a speeding car had rammed into vehicles stopped at the same traffic signal; two brothers riding a motorcycle were thrown into the air and died, six other were injured. The brothers, Punit Sharma and Vivek Sharma, were returning home after a day’s work.
The driver of the car responsible was identified as Virendra Jain; he was taken into police custody.
According to police, the accused was taking his parents to hospital and suddenly encountered the vehicle of a toy vendor. In a fit of nervousness, he stepped on the car's accelerator instead of applying the brakes.
Every year road accidents claim about 150,000 lives in India and result in approximately half a million people being injured. Earlier this week, the Indian government proposed stringent laws to cut the number of road accidents.