Boy killed as rod from expressway falls on him

A 12-year-old boy died after an iron rod fell on him from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway in the capital's Mohakhali area yesterday morning.

The identity of the deceased could not be known.

The boy was walking along the rail lines beneath the under-construction expressway around 9:30am when the rod fell on him.

Abdur Rahman Sheikh, a security guard of a nearby establishment, said he heard a bang followed by a scream.

"We rushed there and saw a boy lying on the rail line in a pool of blood," he said.

A rod was stuck in his head.

Locals took him to a hospital in Mohakhali. As his condition deteriorated, he was moved to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead around 12:45pm, Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of the DMCH police outpost, told The Daily Star.

Matin Biswas, a sub-inspector of Banani Police Station, said they, after primary investigation and talking to witnesses, learnt that the rod fell about 60 feet to the ground below.

An employee of a shop nearby said, "This is sheer negligence. People walk there and trains run. Workers should have been on the ground to stop people and divert them."

During a spot visit, this correspondent saw workers working on the expressway even though people were walking beneath. The same was noticed at the Mohakhali level crossing where people walk, and vehicles and trains ply under the expressway.

An expressway worker, who was about 100 yards away from the incident, on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper, "No one was deployed beneath to prevent people's entry there."

"We only restrict people's movement during a major work like lifting girders or viaducts … The authorities usually do not take adequate security measures during minor work on the viaducts," he said.

AHMS Kamal, project director of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, could not be reached for comments despite multiple attempts.

This paper tried to talk to expressway officials at the site office in Banani, but they refused to comment.

On August 15 last year, five people were killed after a segment of a box girder of the BRT project fell on a car at the Jasimuddin Road intersection on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway. The crane that was lifting the girder segments toppled.

The highway was neither closed nor was the traffic diverted for the work.