Suresh Raina escapes serious road accident following tyre burst

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Raina avoided a potentially disastrous car accident in Uttar Pradesh

What’s the story?

India’s middle-order batsman Suresh Raina escaped a potentially serious accident after one of the tyres of his car burst while he was travelling from Ghaziabad to Kanpur. Local police helped the unhurt Raina reach Kanpur by providing him with an alternative vehicle.

In case you didn’t know…

Currently out of favour with the Indian team, Raina, who has been playing multiple tournaments to get back to prime form and fitness, was last seen in the Buchi Babu invitational meet in Chennai. He was scheduled to travel to Kanpur for the Duleep Trophy, where he is set to captain the India Blue side.

He last donned the Indian colours in January this year, playing for the T20I team during the England's tour of India.

The heart of the matter

The 30-year-old was at the wheel of his Range Rover, passing New Friends Colony, Etawah, around 3:30 am early Tuesday morning, when one of the rear tyres burst.

Raina, who didn’t have a spare tyre in the car, had to wait for quite a while before the local police came to his aid. They arranged for another vehicle for the Muradnagar-born left-hander, helping him complete the journey safely. The police said that if Raina was driving the car at high speed, the consequences of the tyre burst would have been catastrophic.

What’s next?

Having safely reached Kanpur, Raina will captain the India Blue side against India Red in the Duleep Trophy game, scheduled to be held on September 13. Raina's side also has IPL stars like Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant.

Author’s take

Road accidents in India are rising at a calamitous rate: a recent case study by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Govt. of India, revealed that 17 deaths occurred on Indian roads every hour in 2016, with Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu accounting for the most number of yearly fatalities in the country.

Cricket has lost talents like Ben Hollioake, Runako Morton and Manjural Islam Rana Jr to road accidents in the past. Luckily for Raina, the tyre burst did not send the car into a tizzy: at higher speeds, the metal rim of the exposed tyre can hit the road and send the vehicle rolling over, leading to disastrous consequences.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram