3 November 2025… Loha Mandi of Harmada, Jaipur. At around 1 pm, a dumper came out from road number 14 towards the highway. Suddenly he crushed 17 vehicles in 400 meters and crushed 26 people. 14 died and 12 were injured. The condition of 7 is critical.
This is not the first time that a dumper has played the game of death. But have you ever wondered why more accidents happen with dumpers than trucks, buses and cars? Such accidents have started happening so much that you don’t even pay attention to them anymore. As if life has no value left.
So let us understand in ABP Explainer why dumpers are becoming the cause of death, why there are more accidents due to dumpers than trucks and buses and what is the value of a human life…
Question 1- What is the whole matter of dumper accident in Jaipur and what has happened till now?
answer- 14 people have died in a dumper accident in Jaipur. 12 people are injured, out of which 7 are in critical condition. He has been admitted to the Trauma Center of Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital. When the dumper crushed the people, the pieces of the dead bodies scattered here and there. Someone’s leg was amputated and someone’s hand. 2 dead bodies have not been identified. After the accident, people caught dumper driver Kalyan Meena and handed him over to the police. He is also admitted in the hospital. A case of culpable homicide has been registered against Kalyan.
Police say that about one and a half kilometers before the accident, the dumper driver had an altercation with a car owner outside a petrol pump. After this the driver took the dumper to the wrong side. It was written on the back of the dumper – ‘If you have the guts, pass, otherwise tolerate.’ This dumper (RJ 14 GP 8724) has been challaned thrice for overloading. An overload challan of Rs 17 thousand is outstanding.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma has issued strict orders…
- Now the license of those driving after drinking alcohol will be canceled in Rajasthan.
- Instructions have been given to remove encroachments around the highway, close illegal cuts in the state and take strict action against overloading.
- Transport, police and public works departments will jointly run a road safety campaign across the state for 15 days from November 4.
Question 2- Have there been major accidents involving dumpers in the country before?
answer- Yes. Accidents happen every day due to dumper…
- 3 November 2025: A dumper hit a bus in Telangana, killing 24 people and injuring many.
- 1 November 2025: In Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, a speeding dumper crushed three youths riding a bike. The bike was blown to pieces and all three youths died.
- 26 July 20925: In Maharashtra, a dumper lost control and hit 20 cars on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. 5 people died and more than 15 were injured.
- 20 April 2025: In Bihar, a speeding dumper hit a car on the Patna-Gaya highway, in which 5 people died and 2 were injured.
- 15 March 2025: An overloaded dumper crushed pedestrians and bike riders in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, killing 3 people and injuring 11.
Not only this, the role of heavy vehicles in road accidents has increased by 25% in 2025.
Question 3- Why do dumpers cause more road accidents than buses, trucks and cars?
answer- There are 4 big reasons for more accidents happening due to dumper…
1. Overloading: The weight of the dumper itself becomes the killer.
- Dumpers were originally made to carry debris or construction materials, but overloading is their most fatal weakness in India. A normal dumper can carry a load of 20-25 tonnes. But according to the 2025 report of the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), every third truck or dumper in India carries 10-20% more load than the maximum load. This doubles the braking distance. At a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, it takes 100 meters instead of the normal 50 meters.
- According to experts, overloading shifts the center of gravity of the dumper upwards, which increases the risk of turning or overturning on a slope by 20%. Professor Ashish Verma of IISc Bengaluru had said in a 2020 study, ‘Overloading not only causes brake failure but also causes tire blast, which is the root cause of 30% of dumper accidents.’ According to the report 2023 of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (MoRTH), there were 12 thousand deaths due to overloading.
2. Overspeeding: When speed becomes the enemy
- Dumper drivers often drive at speeds of 90-120 kilometers per hour under pressure to meet delivery targets, while the highway limit is 80 kilometers per hour. According to the MoRTH 2023 report, overspeeding is the cause of 68% of road accidents and this figure reaches 75% in heavy vehicles. In 2023, there were 9,618 deaths due to speeding in Rajasthan, which was the highest in the country.
- In a survey conducted by Statista in 2020, truck drivers themselves said overspeeding was the main reason for accidents. According to the 2018 Global Status Report of the World Health Organization (WHO), a 10% increase in speed increases the risk of death by 40%. The heavy weight of the dumper increases the momentum (p = m*v) with speed, due to which the crash energy of small vehicles is transferred 4 times more.
3. Drunk driving: Drunk driving is necessary due to fatigue and sleep.
- Drug addiction among dumper drivers is an epidemic. Due to long journey, stress and low salary, they resort to alcohol or gutkha. Even in the Jaipur accident, driver Kalyan was drunk. According to the MoRTH 2023 report, intoxication causes 5-10% of accidents, but in heavy vehicles it is up to 15%.
- Scroll.in’s 20 November 2019 study (updated to 2023 data) found that the alcohol limit in India is 0.05 mg/l, but enforcement is so weak that 13% of drivers drive without a license or are drunk.
4. Training and fitting: Negligence with driver and dumper
- Dumper drivers often drive dumpers continuously for 8-12 hours, that too without applying brakes. According to Quartz Report 2022, 63% of drivers suffer from fatigue. According to MoRTH report, 13% of accidents in 2023 were caused by drivers without license or without training. In the Jaipur accident, the driver’s anger may have triggered fatigue. Apart from this, drivers also do not get complete training. 60% of highway accidents occur due to inadequate training.
- Maintenance of dumpers is a big issue in India. Brakes, tires and suspension get damaged quickly due to overloading and bad roads. According to a 2023 study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), mechanical failures account for 20-30% of heavy vehicle crashes. In India, 1 out of every 3 dumpers run without regular checkups, which invites accidents.
Question 4- So is human life so cheap in the world including India that it can be crushed by a dumper?
answer- 14 people were crushed to death in Jaipur. The state government announced to give only Rs 2 lakh to every family from PMNRF and Rs 10 lakh. That means one person’s life is worth around Rs 12 lakh. Now imagine if you buy a new car, the average price is Rs 15 lakh and a good phone is available for Rs 1 lakh. In such a situation, the question arises whether a life is cheaper than a car. Because of this, drivers often think that if they are crushed, they have been crushed. The fine will be only Rs 10 lakh and you will be saved from legal trouble.
On the contrary, if a person dies in a plane crash, he gets compensation worth crores of rupees from the government. Rs 1.5-1.5 crore were given to the families of the victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash. That means the life of people walking on the road is cheap and the life of those flying in the air is expensive. If death occurs while walking on the road, it will be around Rs 10-12 lakh and if death occurs in an aeroplane, it will be Rs 1.5 crore.
In comparison to India, the value of one life in America is Rs 1 crore and in Britain it is Rs 2.5 crore. In Britain, a village can be established on the death of one person, but in India only a small shop will be able to open. Apart from this, the social impact is also deep. In 2016, a girl was crushed by a truck in Delhi, the CCTV footage of which also went viral. About 50 people passed by during the accident, but no one stopped. That means we have made life cheap.
Question 5- Why have Indians become careless about the life of any human being?
answer- According to Dr. Ashwini Bagga, the biggest reason for Indians becoming emotionless (a person who has no emotions) is the fear of the police, which has imprisoned humanity. If someone has fallen on the road, the first thought that comes to my mind is that if I touch it, the police will catch me. This fear is not without reason. In 2022, a person took the injured to the hospital in Punjab. The police made him the main witness. It took two years to go to court and had to spend about Rs 50 thousand.
It is for such reasons that people do not help an injured person on the road. But now the situation has become better than before. A new law, Good Samaritan Protection Act, has been added to BNS, so that if you help an injured person, the police cannot harass you. If you help, you will not get any punishment and if you want to keep your name hidden, then there is no problem. In 2024, a boy helped the injured in Gujarat. The police thanked him but he was afraid that a case might be filed.
Ashwini Bagga says, ‘It used to happen earlier that if you helped an injured person and the police did not find the culprit, then you were made the victim. Now there is a law to stop this. However, nothing gets fixed or changes immediately. This law will take some time to become stable and the common people will also have to learn to trust it. If we help someone, someone will help us. If we do not make our own life cheap, it can become priceless.