‘Children covered in blood helped us in rescue work’
The impact flung the school van in the air and it rolled over at least thrice before landing on its side on the road 30m away Two injured boys, covered in blood, try to rescue a girl who was trapped under the front seat of the van. Locals join the rescue effort Keshav Puram Tri Nagar
The van is hit by a speeding milk tanker that is headed from Inderlok to Keshavpuram. The impact of the collision is so massive that the van’s door swings open and two children are thrown out of the vehicle. One girl was thrown out of the van and landed under a parked Innova car, 20m away As the children lay unconscious or cry for help, locals and policemen begin rescuing them. The tanker driver, who tried to flee but is nabbed NEWDELHI: Eyewitnesses of Thursday’s early morning crash said that they will forever be haunted by the image of two children, covered in blood, trying to rescue their little friend from inside the school van.
“The moment the school van was hit, its doors swung opened. Some children were thrown out and landed on the road. Most of the kids sustained severe injuries,” said Deepanshu Gupta, who witnessed the accident seconds after seeing off his own younger school-going brother on a different van.
“One girl was thrown out of the van and landed under a parked Innova car almost 20m away. Another boy landed on the windshield of an auto-rickshaw. There were injured children lying everywhere on the road. Some of them were motionless. Some children had glass shards sticking out of their necks,” said Gupta.
Some children were crying out in pain and calling out to their parents. Some others trapped inside the vehicle were begging the van driver to help them, said Narain Saini, another eyewitness. “The van driver was seen rescuing the children despite his own injuries,” said Saini.
Eyewitnesses said that they also noticed that a girl was trapped under the under the front seat of the van. She was badly injured. The van had overturned . “When we began rescuing the girl, we found two little boys joining in to help. They were crying and were injured, but did not bother about their own pain,” said Gupta.
“We were overwhelmed. One auto driver later thanked them and offered them a cloth to stop their bleeding. I gave one of them a bottle of water, but he offered it to another injured boy lying on the road,” said Gupta.
The policemen stationed nearby and locals then joined hands to move the injured children to different hospitals. “There were some car owners and auto drivers who refused to help,” said Saini.
However, the efforts of the locals were not enough to save seven-year-old Garima Chauhan, a Class 3 student of Kendriya Vidyalaya. “She was seated in the middle seat, right at the point of impact in the crash,” said Saini.
Gupta said he had noticed the tanker driver trying to flee. “First I thought of chasing and catching him, but then I realised that the injured children should be attended to on a priority basis,” said Gupta.the 38-year-old driver was nabbed by some policemen nearby.