3 killed as speeding car hits bike, divider, flips ‘4-5 times’
NEW DELHI: Two sisters and a food delivery agent were killed and at least three others injured after a speeding car rammed a motorbike and crashed into the iron railing of a road divider before flipping over 4-5 times on Vikas Marg in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar in the early hours of Sunday, police said.
The two sisters, 17 and 19, were among the seven occupants of the Wagon R car while the delivery agent, identified as Guddu Parsadh, was riding the bike involved in the accident.
Local residents said the sisters fell out of the rear windows of the car when the vehicle was flipping over on the road. More than 10ft of the railings on the central verge were broken due to the crash.
The driver, Krishna Rajak (22), claimed he lost control of the car after a vehicle hit it. Police, however, said they have not found any CCTV footage that could establish the exact sequence of events. They suspect speeding caused the accident. The car’s odometer stopped at 140 kmph but that could be a malfunction, according to a relative of Rajak’s.
Rajak, a janitor of a building in Karkardooma, said the car was travelling at around 80 kmph. It belonged to his employer, he said.
The family in the car was returning to Karkardooma after attending a relative’s wedding anniversary in outer Delhi’s Peeragarhi, when the accident took place at around 1 am on Vikas Marg, close to Walia Nursing Home. The seven family members included a couple, identified as Rajak and his wife Kajal Rajak (20), and their two-year-old daughter, Anshika. Krishna Rajak sustained minor injuries while his wife and daughter escaped unhurt.
Those dead were Rajak’s cousins – Jyoti (17) and Bharti (19). His siblings, Rahul Rajak (20) and Kanchan Rajak (18), suffered serious injuries.
The bodies of Jyoti and Bharti were taken to Subzi Mandi mortuary, where autopsies will be conducted on Monday. The food delivery man’s body was taken to the mortuary of Guru Teg Bahadur hospital for identification and autopsy, police said.
Shakarpur police station received a call at around 1pm regarding the accident, according to Priyanka Kashyap, deputy commissioner of police (east). A police team reached the spot and rescued those trapped inside the car, she said.
Four of the injured were rushed to Hedgewar hospital, where two were declared brought dead, police said. The other two were discharged after medical treatment. The injured biker was taken to GTB hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
Driver Rajak said his wife and daughter were on the front passenger seat while the other four were in the rear. All four windows of the car were open.
“After crossing the traffic signal near the Laxmi Nagar market, I overtook the bike from its left when suddenly an unknown vehicle hit my car from behind. I lost control of the car and it climbed onto the road divider on my right after it crashed into the iron railing,” Rajak said. “Thereafter, the car flipped four or five times. I don’t remember what happened after that and how the biker was hit. I regained consciousness after a few minutes and found my two cousins and the biker were dead.”
No cars stopped to help the accident victims, local residents said on Sunday afternoon. This delayed the rescue and required medical attention of the victims, they said.
It was only when a passing ambulance was stopped that the injured persons were taken to a hospital. The injured biker was taken to the GTB hospital in a private car belonging to a local resident, said Pramod Gupta, who lives close to the accident spot and has an electronic appliance shop on the ground floor of his building.
Another resident, Himanshu Gupta, said he was going to bed when he heard the crash and rushed out. The car was badly damaged and was lying upside down. Two occupants of the car came out through the rear windows and one of them was injured, he said.
“One woman with her head badly crushed was bleeding in the middle of the road. She was dead. Some onlookers said her head was crushed by another passing vehicle,” he said.
“The other injured girl was lying under the movable garbage bin. The delivery person was bleeding from his head in the middle of the central verge. The scene at the spot was horrific,” he said.