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5 Kanwars killed after truck jumps divider on Delhi’s GT Road
One of the trucks was carrying Kanwar Yatra pilgrims from Nangloi to Haridwar. The driver of the speeding truck fled the scene leaving behind his vehicle
At least five people, including two cousins, on their way to Haridwar for the annual Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage to fetch the Ganga waters, were killed and 14 others injured after an allegedly speeding truck jumped a divider at Siraspur on GT Karnal Road and crashed into another truck in outer Delhi in the early hours of Thursday.
One of the trucks was carrying Kanwar Yatra pilgrims from Nangloi to Haridwar, said police officers. The driver of the speeding truck fled the scene leaving behind his vehicle. He was later apprehended from Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar (SGTN) in Samaipur Badli, northwest Delhi, and identified as Pappu Kumar, from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh.
“The speeding truck Kumar was driving belonged to an SGTN transport company. Kumar had loaded rice bags into the truck in Kaithal, Haryana, unloaded them in Hamidpur near Narela, Delhi, and was driving the vehicle to Azadpur for refuelling when the accident occurred at 12.30 am,” said deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Ravi Kumar Singh, adding that their control room was informed about the accident at 12.44am.
“From the spot inquiry, it was found that the other truck going towards Delhi jumped the central verge of the highway and crashed into the truck carrying kanwariyas [pilgrims] on the opposite carriageway. The impact of the collision was such that at least 19 kanwariyas out of 20-23 were injured. A total of 14 injured were rushed to Satyawadi Raha Harish Chandra Hospital at Narela, where four of them were declared brought dead,” the DCP said. Another man succumbed to his injuries during treatment, said police officers.
“The deceased were identified as Sandeep Kumar, 32, Rajat Sharma, 24, his cousin Aryan Sharma,19, Jagminder Balhara, 56, and Raju, 37, the driver. The rest of the people are undergoing treatment at three different hospitals,” added Singh.
Singh added that the injured were referred to a private hospital in Paschim Vihar due to their serious condition. Raju, the 37-year-old driver of the truck carrying the pilgrims, was one of the two injured and died during treatment in the afternoon. Five other injured people were taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial (BJRM) hospital in Jahangirpuri, the DCP added.
Although the exact cause of the accident is yet to be determined, the arrested truck driver told police that he dozed behind the wheel, lost control of the vehicle, which jumped the road divider and crashed into another truck that was carrying nearly a dozen kanwariyas from Delhi to Haridwar.
“A mechanical inspection of the speeding truck will be performed to determine if any mechanical fault, such as brake or steering failure, caused the accident. The arrested driver’s claims that he dozed off will also be considered,” said a police officer associated with the case.
The first information report (FIR) was registered at Alipur police station, and the driver was booked for rash and negligent driving causing death and injuries under Indian Penal Code sections 279 and 304A , said DCP Singh.
Singh said the accident caused a traffic jam before the movement of vehicles was fully restored by removing both the damaged trucks.
The 14 injured kanwariyas were identified as Dinesh, Sunil Aggarwal, Jagmohan, Kamal Aggarwal, Badal, Abhishek Kumar Aggarwal, Ashish, Chirag Chawla, Tarun, Likesh, Naveen Rai, Shubham Giri, Shiva, and Sandeep, all between the age of 20 and 47.
Pilgrimage turns tragic
Some of the injured people told police that they were part of a group of more than 20 kanwariyas who had hired a truck to travel to Haridwar, where they planned to collect Ganga waters and begin their non-stop Kanwar Yatra back to Delhi and Haryana. Apart from sitting and sleeping arrangements made inside the truck’s body using wooden planks, the truck was decorated, and a generator and music system were installed. The pilgrims were inside the truck listening to devotional songs when the other truck rammed into it after jumping the road divider.
The impact of the crash was such that the entire body of the pilgrims’ truck collapsed, trapping many of the kanwariyas and the driver inside. The fire department’s rescue teams and the police rescued the trapped victims in an hour-long operation. At the same time, social media users shared videos and images of the incident, which showed the damaged trucks and several injured people bleeding on the road.
The aggrieved families
Rajat and Aryan, the two cousins who died in the accident, lived with their families in Prem Nagar, near Nangloi in outer Delhi. Rajat worked for a private finance firm, and his engagement to a woman was set to take place in the coming days. Rajat and his future bride had agreed to marry in a small ceremony hosted by their families on Sunday, according to his father, Rajesh Kumar Sharma.
“I asked Rajat not to participate in the Kanwar Yatra this year because we needed to prepare for his engagement ceremony. He insisted, however, and went with the group he had been a part of for the past four years. He was my only son and the breadwinner of our family. Rajat took along his cousin, who was also his parents’ only son,” said Sharma.
Aryan’s father Pankaj, a Delhi home guard deployed as a marshal in DTC buses, said, “I was getting ready for work when I saw the news of the accident on a news channel. The channel was showing a video of the truck. When I saw the group’s banner on the truck, I recognised it as the same group with which Aryan and Rajat had left for Haridwar. I attempted to contact them, but their mobile phones were turned off. I panicked and called my brother. We both went to the police station in Samaipur Badli and learned that Rajat and Aryan were among the deceased.”
The bodies were transferred to the BJRM hospital mortuary for autopsies.
