The Hindu : Front Page : Rogue truck leaves six dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Rogue truck leaves six dead

Staff Reporter

Police officer among the victims of midnight tragedy on Delhi road

The truck driver and his helper vanished from the spot after abandoning the vehicle
Police have registered a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving

- PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

TRAGIC TRAIL: The killer truck and the auto-rickshaw at the scene of tragedy on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Six persons, including an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Delhi Police, were killed and five injured when a container truck ploughed into them in the Wazirabad area of the Capital late on Sunday night. The truck driver and his helper vanished from the spot abandoning the vehicle.

Shortly before midnight on Sunday night, the police received information about a collision between an auto-rickshaw and a motorcycle on Ring Road near the Wazirabad flyover. The auto-rickshaw was allegedly being driven on the wrong carriageway.

Within minutes, a Police Control Room jeep reached the spot where a large crowd of onlookers had gathered. The police were trying to remove the injured motorcyclist, 35-year-old Mathura Prasad, to a hospital when a container truck bearing a Haryana registration number rammed into the stationary police jeep, two motorcycles and a scooter. In all, 11 people including four policemen were hit. Three of them died on the spot, while three others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Five were admitted to the Trauma Centre and Tirath Ram Shah Hospital.

Those killed were later identified as ASI Balkar Singh, 45, of the Police Control Room, motorcyclist Mathura Prasad, auto-rickshaw driver Vipin (18), mechanic Altaf Ahmed Qureshi (25) and his assistant Raju (19), and a bystander, Virender Yadav, who was a resident of Sitaram Bazar. Head Constable Mithan Lal, Constable Pradeep and Constable Brij Bhushan Tyagi, and two civilians -- Prabhu, who was accompanying Virender, and Rohit -- sustained injuries.

The constables and Prabhu were discharged after treatment, whereas the others were kept under observation. “The condition of Mithan Lal is stated to be serious,” the police said on Monday.

Altaf Ahmed Qureshi’s cousin Rehan said: “We kept waiting for him throughout the night thinking that he had gone out on work. We came to know about the accident in the morning when the police contacted us. The accident happened when he was on his way back home from a hotel owned by his brother. His assistant Raju was also with him.”

When Mathura Prasad did not reach home, his family thought he had stayed back in his footwear shop. His brother Manoj went out in search of him and on the way saw a crane lifting his brother’s motorcycle on Ring Road. When he was told that his brother had met with an accident, he rushed to the Trauma Centre where he was informed that his brother had died.

The police have registered a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving and launched a hunt for the driver. The vehicle has been impounded and its owner contacted to get clues to the whereabouts of the driver.

The Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training that conducted a survey of the accident site on Monday found that the container was carrying almost double the permitted payload capacity.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page