I saw five of my friends die in front of me. I can still see the horrific scene unfold every time I close my eyes,” said Rinku Rajput, a survivor of the tragic Bandra Worli Sea Link accident. The 28-year-old, who was waving an LED baton, signalling drivers to avoid the lane, is also the only eyewitness who saw the car approaching them. He told mid-day, “I saw the car speeding towards us. I jumped towards the railing and it was only a fraction of seconds before the SUV rammed into the vehicles. I was lucky to have survived, but my friends did not.” 

Rajput, who hails from Chitrakut in Uttar Pradesh, said, “I joined as a security staff around 4 months ago at a monthly salary of Rs 7,500 for 8-hour duty. That night, I, along with Rajendra Rajput, joined duty at 10 pm as usual. We got information about a car hitting the divider around 2.40 am. Rajendra and I immediately went towards the accident site. Both of us were waving batons to divert the vehicles from lane 4.”