GHAZIABAD: Four members of a family, including a seven-year-old boy, died after the Maruti Eeco in which they were travelling crashed into a truck parked on one side of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. A 10-year-old girl is battling grievous injuries at Delhi’s GTB Hospital. Police said the family was returning home to Rohtak in Haryana after a dip in the Ganga in Haridwar when the accident took place near Kushaliya village in Masuri. The four who died were identified as Sumit Pal (34), his son Yahit (7), sister Babli (40) and Tejpal Singh (48), Babli’s husband. Sumit’s daughter, Nikita (10), suffered critical injuries to the head. Sumit, the police said, was behind the wheel while his son sat beside him in the front. SP (rural) Iraj Raja told TOI that the police got a call from a passerby around 1pm, informing about the accident. “A team was rushed to the spot along with an ambulance. The father-son duo were inside the car while two others were on the road. A girl was also inside the vehicle, oozing blood from her wounds. Four were declared dead on arrival, while the girl was admitted,” he added. Nikita was referred to the Delhi hospital after her condition deteriorated. “We are trying to find out more about the accident. The car, obviously, was moving at high speed. The driver could not slam the brakes in time and crashed into the rear of the truck. We have asked NHAI to share with us CCTV footage of the area. We will try to identify the truck and its driver,” Raja said. Trucks parked on one side of a speedway like the DME – as drivers take a break – have often been the cause of fatal accidents. Since vehicles zoom at 100kmph on the expressway, it becomes extremely difficult for drivers to slam the brakes when they encounter a parked truck all of a sudden. The problem is all the more acute for DME, which sees heavy and high-speed intercity traffic all day. On June 22, two persons were killed after a truck ploughed into an iron-rod laden tractor-trolley that in turn collided with an auto-rickshaw near ABES Engineering College on the DME. Rohit, Tejpal’s son, had gone to Haridwar too. “They picked me up from my hostel in Meerut on Wednesday and dropped me on the way back. A little later, I received information that my parents had died,” said Rohit, a BTech student at Subharti University in Meerut. Ravindra Panth, the SHO of Masuri police station, said an FIR had been registered against unknown persons under sections 304A (causing death by negligence), 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC. “A team has been formed to nab the accused as soon as possible,” he added. Till July this year, a total of 109 accidents took place on the DME and Eastern Peripheral Expressway, killing 61 people and injuring 88.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ghaziabad/four-of-family-die-as-van-ploughs-into-truck-parked-on-side-of-delhi-meerut-expressway/articleshow/93648402.cms
