Truck that killed five in a car caught on cam: NHAI
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Thursday said it has found the truck that collided with a car on phase 4 of the Delhi-meerut expressway (DME) in Ghaziabad on Monday night, killing five persons travelling in the car, on their surveillance system. Officials said the truck was speeding and did not have its indicators on as it moved on the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with the car.
According to sources familiar with development, nine of the 32 CCTV cameras on the stretch were out of order on the day of the accident. By Wednesday, 15 more went out of order.
“The CCTV cameras were not operating at the time due to a damage to the cables in the heavy rain that lashed the district recently. We fixed 31 of the cameras on priority by Thursday,” said Mudit Garg, NHAI project director.
“We now have CCTV footage, in which the truck is seen speeding, well above the 80kmph limit, and the driver probably covered a distance of 9km on the wrong side before colliding with the car. By the time our control room could alert the response vehicle, which was stationed at Kashi toll in Meerut, about 20km from the accident spot, the truck had hit the car,” said Garg.
Officials said they have only
THE NHAI HAS DECIDED TO STATION SEVERAL RETIRED POLICE PERSONNEL ON THE EXPRESSWAY
one response vehicle as per the contract.
“The truck was driving on the lanes near the median of the expressway, which are high speed lanes. The driver did not turn on the blinkers to warn other drivers. This led to the fatal accident. We suspect the vehicle entered the expressway
from near IMS College, which is on the wrong side. The driver probably did this to avoid driving another 4km to come to the side of the expressway going towards Meerut,” said Garg.
The speed limit for cars on the expressway is 100kmph while it is 80kmph for commercial vehicles.
Police arrested the driver and slapped Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code in an FIR lodged against him at Masuri police station on Monday. They also seized his truck.
The NHAI has decided to station several retired police personnel on the expressway to crack down on illegally parked vehicles and those violating traffic rules.
“We have discussed this with our senior officers and have requested permission.the retired police officers will be roped in directly by NHAI. They will be provided vehicles, which will help them address traffic violations on priority. They will also be required to supervise the staff on night duty.”
National Highways Authority of India officials on Wednesday said they have deployed 10 marshals to check erring vehicles on phase 4 of the expressway.