Pregnant Woman and Unborn Child Die in Prayagraj Gridlock: Who Will Take Responsibility?
BK Singh
A heartbreaking tragedy unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district on Tuesday morning when a pregnant woman and her unborn child died after being trapped for nearly two hours in a massive traffic jam on the Shastri Bridge.
The family was desperately trying to reach a hospital as the woman went into labour, but the gridlock proved fatal.
Seema, 32, a resident of Bani village under Hanumanganj police station, began experiencing labour pains and was first taken to the Community Health Centre in Bani.
Doctors there referred her to Swaroop Rani Nehru (SRN) Hospital in the city due to complications.
However, the family, hoping for quicker treatment, stopped first at two private hospitals—both of which again recommended shifting her to a larger facility.
Their journey took a tragic turn when they became stuck on Shastri Bridge around 9:30 am after a three-vehicle collision choked one lane, while the other was jammed with office goers and Chhath Puja pilgrims.
For nearly one-and-a-half hours, the family remained stranded inside their car as Seema’s condition deteriorated rapidly.
“Despite our desperate attempts to get help, we could not find any traffic police or officials to clear the jam.
We begged people around us for assistance,” said, family member present in the vehicle. “By the time we managed to locate an ambulance, she had already died.”
Seema and her unborn child breathed their last inside the car around 11 am—leaving behind two small children, aged five and two-and-a-half, and a family shattered by grief and anger.
Traffic Police Missing in Action?
Even as cranes later arrived to clear the accident site, questions loom large: Where were the traffic cops during one of the city’s worst peak-hour bottlenecks?
Why was there no emergency corridor for critical medical cases? In situations where minutes decide between life and death, did official apathy cost two precious lives?
DCP (Traffic) Neeraj Pandey confirmed the collision and the resultant jam but claimed he was unaware of the woman’s death at the time.
Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Officer has sought a report, adding that the family allegedly did not follow the referral to SRN Hospital directly.
Yet, that bureaucratic defence does little to ease the pain of a family who simply ran out of time.
Not the First Time: Deadly Legacy of Shastri Bridge Jams
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. In June 2024, college lecturer Mitresh Singh died on the same bridge after being stuck for nearly three hours while being taken to a hospital.
Earlier this year, during the Mahakumbh, a woman pilgrim from Maharashtra lost her life due to another prolonged jam on this very route.
Residents say the Shastri Bridge choke point has claimed multiple lives and remains a glaring civic failure.
“There is no concrete traffic management plan. Every festival, every rush hour, every accident turns into chaos,” said an elderly Prayagraj resident.
Had schools not been shut for Chhath Puja, the situation could have worsened, potentially trapping school buses and vans for hours.
Time for Systemic Solutions
Prayagraj—bordered by the rivers Ganga and Yamuna on three sides—faces unique mobility challenges.
With SRN Hospital functioning under the city’s medical college, is it not time for the state government to sanction two additional wings—one each in the Trans-Ganga and Trans-Yamuna regions?
Residents argue that such facilities would not only ease access to emergency medical care but also reduce deadly delays caused by bridge congestion.
Human Life Cannot Be Held Hostage to Trafficking.c
The death of a young mother and her unborn child is a stark and painful reminder of systemic failures.
Whether due to poor traffic management, lack of emergency response mechanisms, or infrastructure delays, someone must be held accountable.
The grief-stricken family insists Seema would have survived if only the road ahead had not been a battlefield of stalled vehicles.
A city cannot allow motherhood to turn into mourning simply because traffic did not move in time.
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