A month ago, the news that Mumbai had finally seen a dip in the number of deaths on the railway system by seven per cent in 2025 as compared to the previous year, was plastered across city dailies and social media handles. Most had mixed feelings about the “happy” development prompting the rhetorical question: Are we really celebrating lower number of deaths?

But the illusion of safety was shattered last Saturday, February 14, when the city was once again exposed to an all-too-familiar scene. They were the visuals of a man trapped in a mangled autorickshaw, hauntingly moaning in pain, flashing on our television and cellphone screens. Later identified as Ramdhan Yadav, who was declared dead on arrival at the hospital where he was taken. It had been a 45 minute ordeal for the rescuers to cut him out of the autorickshaw.