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”.
Northern Territory
Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Crash that claimed woman’s life in Alawa overnight followed a pursuit, police confirm
- ‘Lack of a right turn lane from Trower Road into Lakeside Drive results in regular near misses’: Fatal crash on Trower Rd sparks community debate
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.
MORE TOP NT NEWS
VIDEO: Brazen youths wave at onlookers from stolen car during cop chase in Palmerston
New Darwin strip club set to open after more than 12 month dry spell in former sin city
High profile Darwin sports star busted allegedly grooming children on Snapchat and Instagram
“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.”
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’.”