Three killed, 2 injured as car collides with truck on NH-48

Three men were killed and two others severely injured after the car in which they were travelling allegedly collided with a truck on National Highway (NH-48) near Bilaspur Chowk on Wednesday, Gurugram police said Friday

Three men were killed and two others severely injured after the car in which they were travelling allegedly collided with a truck on National Highway (NH-48) near Bilaspur Chowk on Wednesday, Gurugram police said Friday.

Three killed, 2 injured as car collides with truck on NH-48

Police said the man who was driving the car died on the spot, while one occupant succumbed to injuries on Thursday and the third died on Friday.

According to investigators, the truck driver fled the spot after the accident and is still at large. The truck has a Maharashtra number and is registered in Pune, they said.

Police said though the injured persons have told them that the truck had suddenly stopped on NH-48, investigation indicates that the driver left the vehicle parked in the middle of the road without turning on any lights or reflectors.

The collision took place around 7.30pm on Wednesday, when the five friends — Ravi Yadav, Sachin Singh, Kuldeep, Harsh and Jatin Kumar — all aged between 25-30 years, were returning home to Pataudi from Rewari in a Maruti Baleno, said police.

Police said Yadav, who was injured, said they were behind the truck when it suddenly applied the brakes. Car driver Kumar also applied the brakes but it tail ended the truck. The impact was such that the speeding car went under the truck and got crushed under it, police said.

According to investigators, passersby extricated the injured persons from the car, which was mangled beyond recognition, and rushed them to a nearby private hospital. They said doctors declared Kumar dead on arrival and referred Kuldeep and Harsh to higher medical centres due to their critical condition.

According to police, Yadav and Singh are undergoing treatment and their condition remain serious, while Kuldeep and Harsh succumbed to injuries. Both suffered grievous head injuries, police added.

Mahesh Kumar, father-in-law of Yadav said, “I came to know that the truck driver was driving recklessly on the highway and suddenly applied the brakes, resulting in the accident,” he said.

A senior police officer said Yadav is an army driver and was on leave. “The car belonged to him. Prima facie, it seems that the truck was parked carelessly. It didn’t have any reflectors on it and neither were the back lights nor the indicators turned on to alert other drivers. Kumar failed to spot it from a distance in the dark. By the time he could see it, the car had hit the truck,” he said.

Inspector Rahul Dev, station house officer (SHO) of Bilaspur police station, said that the truck was seized from the spot and brought to the police station. “The driver is yet to be traced. He fled after the accident,” he said.

On Yadav’s statement at the hospital, an FIR against the unidentified truck driver was registered under Section 279 (rash driving or riding on public way), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 337 (acting rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the public safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Bilaspur police station on Thursday evening, said police.