5 of family killed after car rams into parked truck on Greater Noida Expressway

The WagonR’s driver may have dozed off behind the wheel and rammed into the truck, which had halted due to a tyre puncture, said police

Five members of a family were killed when their Maruti Suzuki WagonR car crashed into a stationary truck on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway near the Noida Sector 146 Metro station at 6am on Sunday, police said. Police suspect that the WagonR’s driver may have dozed off behind the wheel and rammed into the truck, whose driver had parked it in on the road due to a tyre puncture. The truck driver fled on foot after the accident, police said.

A passersby told police about the accident on their emergency helpline number at 6am. (Representational image)

The victims have been identified as Aman Singh, 27, his father Devi Singh, 60, mother Rajkumari Singh, 50, and two aunts Vimlesh Singh, 40, and Kamlesh Singh, 40, all residents of Kashiram Colony in Ghodi Bachheda, Dadri. They were returning home from a hospital in Noida Sector 30 where the two-year-old son of one of their relatives was admitted for an illness, police said.

A passersby told police about the accident on their emergency helpline number at 6am. “The family left the hospital at 3.30am and were going home to Greater Noida. We think Aman, the driver, dozed off behind the wheel which caused the car to swerve towards the left lane of the expressway and ram into the stationary truck. Aman was killed in the impact while the others were injured. We rushed to the scene and took the injured to a nearby hospital where they succumbed to their injuries during treatment,” said a police officer.

Police said that Aman’s body was pulled out of the mangled car with the help of a hydraulic crane after a two-hour-long operation. “We learnt that the driver was on the scene when the crash took place but fled afterwards,” the officer said.

“The family is survived by Aman’s 16-year-old brother and two sisters. Vimlesh is survived by her husband Gyani Singh and three adult children, while Kamlesh is survived by her husband Jeevan, and three adult children and one minor son,” said the officer.

Police registered a case under Section 106 (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Knowledge Park police station on Sunday.

According to traffic police data, Gautam Budh Nagar recorded 331 deaths and 735 injuries in 853 road accidents between January and September this year.