Darwin Uber driver relives ‘nightmare’ Trower Rd smash that cost him his livelihood

AN Uber driver who lost his livelihood when his car was written off in a fatal crash on Sunday has spoken of his drive home turned into a “nightmare”.

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A DARWIN Uber driver who lost his livelihood when his car was written off in a fatal crash in Alawa on Sunday has spoken of how a routine drive home turned into a “nightmare”.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Tuesday, Kumar Dangi said he had just finished a shift at his second job when a hatchback allegedly ran a red light and slammed into him, killing a 36-year-old woman passenger in the other car.

“There was a red light so I just stopped there and when it turned green I was crossing and after that I can’t remember anything when the whole impact happened,” he said.

Mr Dangi said the next thing he remembered was being tended to by paramedics with the wreckage of his brand new car and livelihood strewn around him.

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“I don’t think it’s repairable, it’s completely wrecked, I paid almost 33 grand to pay off my loan for the car, which I just finished in January — now I have to stay at home from my other work for maybe at least a month,” he said.

“I’m an innocent victim, I’ve not done anything wrong, I was in a clear state of mind, without drink, no bad record, nothing like that and then all of a sudden … your whole world becomes upside down.”

Kumar Dangi recovers in Royal Darwin Hospital on Tuesday with his wife Kalpana Giri by his side. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

Mr Dangi’s wife, Kalpana Giri, told the NT News her “whole world fell apart” when she learned of the horror smash.

Ms Giri said she was at home with her mother and the couple’s 17-month-old son, Kiaan, when a police officer knocked at her door.

“I asked him ‘Is he OK though?’ and he was like ‘I can’t tell you right now’ and then he told me there was a dead woman there and that made me feel even (worse), I was like ‘This is a terrible one, nobody just dies like that,” she said.

“I asked him ‘Was it Kumar’s fault?’ and he goes ‘No, no, no, he was just an innocent victim.”

Ms Giri called a nurse friend who worked at RHD and they rushed to the hospital to find Mr Dangi laid up in bed but miraculously, without any life threatening injuries.

“They did an X-ray and everything and then at the end they were like ‘There are multiple broken ribs’ and I was like ‘So two or three?’ and they go ‘No, it’s nine’,” she said.

“All the doctors, all the policemen and everyone, they were just saying ‘It’s a miracle, nobody survives that’.”

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