Delhi crash: Woman who lost unborn child dies

For 30-year-old Raja, Thursday’s road crash on Sonia Vihar Pushta Road in northeast Delhi has brought a succession of devastating losses

For 30-year-old Raja, Thursday’s road crash on Sonia Vihar Pushta Road in northeast Delhi has brought a succession of devastating losses. First, his nine-month-pregnant wife, Rakhi, suffered a miscarriage after the overloaded autorickshaw they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck, killing two men.

The autorickshaw, which was carrying 8 people, was hit head-on by a truck on Pushta Road on Thursday morning. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

A day later, on Friday morning, Rakhi too succumbed to her injuries in hospital.

But Raja, who was discharged from hospital on Friday evening, is yet to be told that his wife is dead. His family says he is too traumatised to be given another devastating piece of news so soon after learning that their unborn child had not survived.

“Raja is still in post-accident trauma. He is already devastated after learning about Rakhi’s miscarriage and that their unborn baby died due to the accident. His condition is such that we cannot give him a double shock by telling him that his wife has also died. We have told him that Rakhi is still undergoing treatment and she is not in a condition to talk to anyone,” Rakhi’s sister-in-law Rajni told HT.

Around 9am on Friday, doctors treating Rakhi informed the family that she had succumbed to severe head injuries sustained in the crash. Her body was taken to the mortuary at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, where a post-mortem examination was conducted later in the day.

The family plans to bring her body home on Saturday for the last rites. They intend to tell Raja about her death before it arrives. “Rakhi left behind her one-year-old son, who is too young to understand the meaning of life and death. The child is with me. He is constantly crying for his mother,” Rajni said.

Originally from Loni in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district, Raja and Rakhi lived in a rented house in Chauhan Patti with their young son. Raja works at a neighbourhood printing press, while Rakhi was a homemaker, the family said. The couple had been on their way to hospital early on Thursday morning after Rakhi went into labour.

Crash toll rises to three

With Rakhi’s death, the toll in the crash has risen to three. Two other passengers, 40-year-old autorickshaw driver Pramod Chaurasia and 32-year-old passenger Satbir Singh, died on Thursday. Raja and five other injured people, including a mother and her six-month-old daughter, were still undergoing treatment on Friday.

Police search for truck driver

Meanwhile, police are searching for the truck driver who fled after the collision. Investigators have established his identity through the truck’s owner, who has also been questioned, a senior police officer said.

“We have identified the errant truck driver. He is from Bihar. We have learnt that he fled to his hometown after the accident. A team has been sent there to locate and arrest him,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Arvind Kumar.

How the collision happened

The crash took place around 5am on Thursday on 5th Pushta Road in Sonia Vihar. According to police, the four-seater autorickshaw was carrying eight people when it was hit head-on by a truck travelling in the opposite direction.

Police received a call about the accident at 5.09am. The injured, including five men, two women and a six-month-old girl, were taken to Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, where Chaurasia and Satbir were declared dead on arrival.

The other injured included Satbir’s wife, Moni, 30, their infant daughter, Rakhi, Raja, 45-year-old Rameshwar Dayal and Chaurasia’s friend, Akshay Sharma, 35.

“The autorickshaw was going towards Chauhan Patti from Sabhapur and the truck was coming from the other side. It was a head-on collision on Pushta Road. Because the Yamuna is on both sides of the road, there was fog around 5am when the incident took place,” a police officer said, adding that the truck driver fled after the crash.