Mangalore: JCB brake failure near Mulky leaves two dead

Sunil Haleangady
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jul 3: Two persons were killed at Karnad near Mulky here on Wednesday July 3 when a JCB Earthmover ran into them after its brake failed.

The deceased have been identified as Nagappa Gowda from Hassan and Somanath Kapli from Gadag. Both were workers of Ramky Group.

As it was raining heavily, Nagappa and Somanath had taken shelter near a house and were waiting for the rain to recede. They had also parked their bike at the spot.

Even as they were standing near the house, a JCB which was at work nearby came crashing into them in reverse, killing them both. Brake failure is said to have caused the accident.

The house also was damaged in the incident, and so also the bike.

Nagappa from Hassan, working as supervisor in Ramky Group’s hospital waste management plant at Karnad, lived in a rented house near Harihara Temple in Karnad, Mulky. He was one among the nine children of his father, and has left behind wife and 18-month-old son. Somanath Kapli was from Menagi village in Ron taluk in Gadag district. He was the last of the four sons of his father, and lived in Bijapur Colony by the side of his office with wife and two sons, one of whom is aged three years, while the other is six months old.

The motor bike which got damaged in the accident belongs to Ranganath Shenoy, son of building owner, Shivaraya Shenoy.  Being colleagues, Nagappa and Somanath had left their homes for buying a pair of footwear from a shop in Karnad. As the intensity of rain increased when they were moving towards the shop, they had taken shelter under the roof of the painting shop.

The driver of the JCB said that the engine of the crane suddenly stopped when he was driving the JCB up on a steep road. As a result, the vehicle sped backwards at great speed, and brakes did not work. “Three persons who were walking by the road sensed the danger and escaped. I never saw that there were two persons by the side of the building that got hit by the vehicle,” he explained.

It is learnt that Ranganath Shenoy, who runs the painting-cum-bicycle repair shop, was painting a cupboard in the shop when he got a call from the head of a school in Mulky. Within five minutes since he left the shop, the JCB hit the shop, claiming lives of two people who had taken shelter because of rain.

A case has been registered in the Mulky police station.