Constable killed as truck rams into him

A 52-year-old police constable was killed when a truck rammed into him in suburban Wadala, police said today.
The victim, identified as constable Sanjiv Tukaram Patil, was out for his morning walk yesterday when the trailer truck hit him and crushed him under its front wheels, said DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni.
The incident occurred at around 8 AM yesterday near SP Road in Wadala, when a 10-wheel trailer hit the policeman and then banged into seven other parked taxis, said Kulkarni.
The vehicle had left the IMAX Wadala area and was moving towards Barkat Ali junction and was supposed to halt near BPT.

However, the driver, identified as Gajendrakumar Sukhdev (44), a resident of Jharkhand, allegedly slept at the wheels for a few minutes and then lost control of the vehicle.
The trailer, after hitting Patil, turned and hit seven other cars parked in the area.

Since it was early morning, all the cars were empty and hence, a huge disaster was averted, said police.
It was found during investigation that the driver was not in an inebriated state and lost control of the vehicle due to lack of sleep.
He was arrested and booked under sections 279, 338 and 304 (a) of IPC, police said.

Patil is survived by his wife, daughter and a son.