4 OF FAMILY KILLED IN NH24 ACCIDENT
TRAGIC Police suspect truck driver fell asleep on the wheel and crashed into Innova; dead included 4 members of a family and driver
A couple, their two teenaged children and driver were killed after a speeding truck hit their SUV on NH24, near Mayur ViharII, on Wednesday.
NEWDELHI: Five people, including four members of a family, were killed and four others injured after their Innova car was rammed by a truck on national highway-24 in east Delhi early Wednesday morning.
The Innova was carrying eight members of a family belonging to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. They were returning home from the Delhi airport after receiving a relative and her son who had arrived from Iran, police said.
As the car was passing by Mayur Vihar-II on National Highway 24 around 3 am and going towards Ghaziabad, a dumper truck travelling on the opposite carriageway broke through the road divider and fell head-on, on the bonnet of the Innova, crushing it. The truck then turned again falling to its right, while the Innova overturned with the impact.
The driver — Mehraj (33) and Qamar Abbas Zaidi sitting beside him, were completely crushed under the truck. Zaidi’s wife, Anjum Fathima Zaidi (50), son Azhar Abbas Zaidi (18) and daughter Juhi Fathima (14) too died on the spot. Among the two guests, Anjum Fatima is critical with brain injuries but her son Ali Zaidi is stable. The two children of Zaidi’s brother — Sukene Zaidi and Abbas Mehendi Zaidi — are undergoing treatment at a hospital.
The driver of the truck that bore an MCD sticker escaped from the spot.
“It appears that the driver lost control over the vehicle, possibly because he fell asleep on the wheel. While trying to control it, he swerved it to the right and rammed the divider. Since the truck was speeding, it broke the divider and fell on the Innova coming on the opposite carriageway. It fell directly on the bonnet crushing the driver and the passenger behind him. Within seconds, it turned again and fell to its right. One of its wheels got entangled in the grilles that were laid for some ongoing construction in the area,” a senior police officer said.
The Innova car was so badly smashed that the occupants too got entangled inside.
It took the police half an hour to pull them out.
“We received a call from a passerby and the PCR rushed to the spot. By the time the occupants could be pulled out of the mangled remains of the Innova car, five of them had died. The rest were rushed to a nearby hospital,” police said.
The police have registered a case under sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the errant driver. “We have registered a case against the driver and have also seized the truck. Our teams will soon arrest the driver,” joint commissioner of police, eastern range, Ravindra Yadav said.
The dumper that was carrying debris was on MCD duty and was going towards Sarai Kale Khan from Ghazipur.
“We have contacted ,the transport authority and will soon trace the truck’s owner. We have also informed MCD and have asked them to give us details of the drivers on duty. Raids are on and the arrest will be made soon,” an investigator told Hindustan Times.