3 of Delhi family dead as truck crushes Audi
NEW DELHI: A businessman, his wife and his elderly mother were killed in outer Delhi’s Rohini shortly after midnight on Wednesday when their car was crushed by a dumper truck that tipped over while taking a turn.
A fourth occupant, the couple’s two-year-old son, survived the accident, police said.
Sumit Singhal, 29, his wife Ruchi, 27 and his mother, Reeta, 65, were returning from a wedding in Gurugram in their white Audi A3 sedan and were about a kilometre from their home in Rohini’s Sector-15 when the accident happened around 12.30am.
“It appears the truck was speeding and overturned while taking a U-turn. The two vehicles were running parallel to each other on the same carriageway. The truck was on the right side of the Audi and overturned on its left,” said SD Mishra, the deputy commissioner of police (Rohini).
According to officials, the driver of the truck, identified as only Harpal, fled the spot.
“He was caught by us from his home town in Sonepat in the morning,” said the officer, adding that since the driver was caught at least six hours after the accident, it was hard to determine if he was driving under the influence of alcohol.
The police version was disputed by Sonu, an eyewitness.
He said that the two vehicles were on opposite carriageways. “The Audi was fast and was taking a sudden U-turn, forcing the truck driver to apply brakes. That caused the truck to overturn,” the eyewitness Sonu contended.
The victims appeared to be buried under a heap of mud spilled over from the dumper truck, but the DCP said that the deaths occurred due to physical wounds suffered by the occupants of the car.
Whether the truck was overloaded may never be known since much of the mud fell on the car and the road, said the DCP.
A case under Indian Penal Code section 304A (causing death due to negligence) has been registered at KN Katju police station.