Mumbai: Less than a week after Jagruti Hogale, 34, a member of an all-women bikers club, was cruelly crushed under a truck after her motorbike hit a deep pothole on the way to Jawahar in Palghar district, her colleagues are in no mood to protest but instead prove that she was not in the wrong.

“There is no point wasting time protesting over the bad state of roads as no one listens to citizens’ voice,” says Pune-based Urvashi Patole, founder of The Bikerni, which has its presence across India and is the front-runner of the women’s motorcycling movement. “We want to emphasise that our colleague was a good and experienced biker and was wearing a helmet and safety gear at the time of the accident.”

The 34-year-old Mumbai-based biker, also a freelance advertising professional, was travelling with two others to Jawahar, some 100km north of Mumbai, and it is possible she had no idea that the pothole covered in rain water was a deep one when the wheel of her bike plunged into it and she was thrown on the narrow road even as a truck crushed her. Stunned by the incident, her colleagues first ensured that the Kasa police station, where the incident took place, withdrew their charge of “rash and negligent driving” against her.

Patole told Gulf News, “We do not want to disturb Hogale’s family at this tragic moment, but when the time comes, we will do our bit to safety on roads, not just for bikers but for everyone by ensuring that roads and such potholes are repaired with funds collected by us.”

In spite of this serious accident, Maharashtra Minister of Public Works Department (PWD) had claimed the biker had not died due to the pothole, but had fallen from her motorbike on the slippery road and was runover by the truck.

Villagers in the locality have complained that many motorists had faced problems due to potholes on the road maintained by the PWD which has since filled up the pothole after the incident.

Patole also said Hogale could not have tried to overtake the truck, as claimed by authorities, since the “road there is so narrow there is no place to overtake. The authorities are only trying to cover up. As citizens we have lost hope to demand better infrastructure from the state.”

Hogale was an expert rider, Patole said, adding that she had undertaken many trips across the country. “She was a responsible rider who had taken part in several biking expeditions and was an example of what a person can achieve. Apart from riding bikes, she was a long-distance runner, a trekker and a very active member of the Bikerni Motorcycle Club.” She was riding a 350cc Royal Enfield Thunderbird at the time of the accident.“

Hogale leaves behind her husband Viraj and their nine-year-old son Archit.