5 killed as truck rams car on Delhi-meerut e-way
GHAZIABAD: Five persons, including two minors, were killed and two others severely injured after the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a speeding mini truck coming on the wrong side on the Delhi-meerut Expressway on Monday night. The truck driver has been arrested, police said.
The accident took place around 10.30pm in Masuri area of Ghaziabad, police said, adding that the victims were returning from Haridwar in an Alto car.
Police identified the deceased as Ashish Sinha, 33, his wife Shilpi Sinha, 30, their one-yearold son, Dev, Ashish’s brotherin-law Sonu Kumar, 35, and Sonu’s daughter, Kavya, 11. Sonu’s wife Nidhi, 28, and their other daughter, Shivi, 4, suffered critical injuries in the incident and are undergoing treatment at Sarvodaya Hospital in Kavi Nagar, police said.
“The car collided head-on with a mini truck that was being driven on the wrong side. We have arrested the truck driver. He is not able to say clearly how he ended up on the wrong side of the expressway,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).
Ashish’s family is from Lucknow while Sonu’s family resides in Makanpur in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram.
Sonu’s relatives said that the two families had gone to Haridwar to perform ‘mundan ’ of Ashish’s son. They also alleged that the jewellery worn by the women were missing, while the men’s wallets were found empty.
“When we checked the bags and wallets of the victims, they were empty. Even the jewellery of the women were missing. We told the local police about it, but they asked us to give a complaint. As we had to take bodies to our native places, we did not file a complaint,” said Pappu Kumar, Sonu’s brother.
“The family from Lucknow had come to Ghaziabad two days ago. The two families left for Haridwar in Sonu’s car around 4am on Monday. After the accident, some passersby helped the victims reach the hospital.
Ashish and his one-year-old son died on the spot, and they were left behind in the car. Ashish’s wife and one of Sonu’s daughters died at the hospital, while Sonu succumbed to injuries around 4am on Tuesday,” he added.
Dr Manoj Jain, medical superintendent of Sarvodaya Hospital, said that the two victims died during treatment.
“Ashish’s wife Shilpi and Sonu’s daughter Kavya died due to critical injuries while we were treating them. Sonu was also critical, and he succumbed to injuries on Tuesday morning. His wife is still critical and on ventilator support while his daughter is in the ICU, but stable,” Dr Jain said.
The incident took place at an isolated spot of the expressway near the border area of Masuri and Bhojpur police stations in Ghaziabad, police said.
Police identified the truck driver as Bablu Singh, a native of Amroha, who was on way from Ghaziabad to Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.
Pawan Kumar, senior superintendent of police (SSP), said that the issue of missing cash and jewellery will be investigated.
“Such things are reported during accidents and it is a cause of concern. There was no deployment of traffic police at the incident site. It could be due to lack
of resources. We have booked the truck driver under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) instead of Section 304a (causing death due to rash or negligent acts) which is generally levied in cases of accidents,” the SSP said.
Family blames driver, authorities for the loss
Family members of the five victims of the Delhi-meerut Expressway (DME) incident said that the “truck driver was primarily responsible for the accident, however, the authorities were also responsible as the driver of the mini truck was driving on the wrong side of expressway”.
“The truck driver was driving in a negligent manner on the wrong side, and we lost five members of our family. The driver is primarily responsible. But the authorities are also responsible as they did not notice the traffic violation,” said Pappu Kumar, brother of one of the victims, Sonu Kumar.
Mudit Garg, project director, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said on Tuesday, “Checking traffic violations is the responsibility of the traffic police, and they must take action against drivers taking the wrong side or over speeding vehicles... It could be possible that the driver had taken a U-turn midway, along the expressway, to
take the wrong side. We have 38 CCTV cameras along the expressway (from Phase 4 in Dasna to Meerut) and those are connected to our control room at Kashi toll plaza. We will check the CCTV footage to understand what had actually happened.”
“We provide the traffic violation data to the Ghaziabad traffic police, but they have not been able to establish links with our systems,” Garg said, adding that Phase 2 (from Up-gate to Dasna) along the DME has 40 CCTVS which are connected to the Dasna control room, but the link for data transfer is yet to be established between the NHAI and the Ghaziabad traffic police systems.
Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic), said, “We have checked footage from four CCTV cameras, but could not spot the driver entering the expressway via the wrong side... An investigation is underway,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).
“Almost 99% of the work to establish a link with the NHAI system is complete, and it will be operational within a couple of days. Once this is done, we will be able to issue fines to violators on the Delhi-meerut Expressway on the basis of traffic data provided by the NHAI,” Kushwaha said on Tuesday evening.