Residents of New Mill Road in Kurla (West) painted a speed breaker on Saturday night after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation failed to do so. The residents had given a written complaint to the ward office requesting it to paint the speed breaker to prevent accidents during the night.

Prashant Tripathi, a journalist, died after suffering injuries when the rickshaw he was commuting in, jumped at the speed breaker and hit another rickshaw on Wednesday night. Tripathi received serious injuries in the accident and was declared dead when he was taken to the hospital.

The civic body, however, did not seem to pay heed to the residents' request. Not wanting to waste more time, residents, mostly youth, contributed money and painted the speed breaker.

After the accident, Bhagwan Singh, a resident and an activist had given a written complaint to the ward office, asking them to paint the speed breaker to prevent similar incidents. "Even after two days, the civic body did not turn up to even check the speed breaker which needed to be painted so that it can be visible at night," said Singh.

He added that members of a local group, Subhash Yuvak Mandal, had also complained to the BMC on the morning of December 14, asking it to paint the speed breakers in their area. "After waiting for two days, we finally contributed money and painted the speed breaker, where the movement of vehicles is heavy," said Rohit Kumar, one of the members of Subhash Yuvak Mandal.

Kumar said that six speed breakers were painted on Saturday night. "We do not want a single accident taking place for any reason. While it is the civic body's responsibility to do the work in time, we cannot just wait for another accident," said Purohit.

Ajutkumar Ambi, assistant commissioner of L ward said, "We could not pay attention to the problem as most of our staff is busy in demolition near Tansa Pipeline and Mithi river." However, he added that he apologises for the delay and will soon get all speed breakers painted in his ward.