JAIPUR: If pain and tragedy needed a face, the lumbering figure of 32-year-old Radheyshyam Choudhary with his arms outstretched and body enveloped in flames would encapsulate everything that went horribly wrong on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway early Friday.
Radheyshyam, a motor mechanic with National Bearings Company Ltd in Jaipur, had left his home near Ring Road on his motorbike as usual, having no inkling of the catastrophe that awaited him and many others barely 2km ahead.
By mid-morning, videos of the aftermath of the gas tanker explosion on the national highway were circulating online, with more than one showing a burning man struggling to stay on his feet as he scampered for help amid the cacophony unleashed by the accident.

Radheyshyam’s elder brother Akheram recalled being woken up at 5.50am by a stranger calling to deliver an ominous message, “Come to Heerapura bus terminal immediately. Your brother is in trouble.”
Half-asleep and disoriented, Akheram rushed to the area with two neighbours. What he saw on reaching the accident site would haunt him forever. “My brother was lying on the road,” Akheram said, his voice breaking. “People told me he walked nearly 600 metres from the explosion site. They said he was crying for help as he struggled down the road. But instead of helping, most bystanders just made videos.”
Realising it would be futile to expect an ambulance to arrive anytime soon because of the traffic chaos, Akheram and his neighbours carried Radheyshyam to their car.
“He was conscious, talking coherently all the way to the hospital,” Akheram said. “He told us exactly what happened, intermittently trembling. He mentioned giving my number to the caller who alerted me. It was unbelievable how he managed to recall my number despite experiencing excruciating pain. Watching him writhe in agony, yet speak so clearly, was unbearable.”
During the journey, Radheyshyam recounted the harrowing moments leading up to the tragedy. He described how he felt the ground shake seconds before a wave of flames swept everything in its way.
Instinctively, Radheyshyam jumped off his bike and ran in the opposite direction, but the flames caught up with him. Despite his burns, he alternately ran and walked until he found someone to call his brother.
At SMS Hospital, the medical staff, already overwhelmed by the surge of accident victims, admitted him. For a brief moment, hope flickered. “We thought he would survive,” Akheram said, struggling to be heard. “But with 85% burns, his chance of survival was a thread that snapped.”