One killed as girder falls on parked trucks

Police identified the victim as Ram Bahadur, who worked as a watchman for trucks parked underneath the bridge. “He was sleeping in one of the trucks on which the beam fell. He was crushed to death,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (west) Prashant Priya Gautam.

A 50-year-old watchman was killed after a concrete and iron girder of an under-construction railway bridge fell on four trucks in west Delhi’s Dayabasti near Punjabi Bagh on Tuesday morning, police said.

Police said Bahadur, who hailed from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, was living in Ashoka Park near Mata Mandir in Punjabi Bagh. (HT Archives. Representative image)

Police identified the victim as Ram Bahadur, who worked as a watchman for trucks parked underneath the bridge. “He was sleeping in one of the trucks on which the beam fell. He was crushed to death,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (west) Prashant Priya Gautam.

While a statement issued by the northern railway claimed the girder fell “during construction of a grade separator at Dayabasti”, police said that no construction work was going on at the site for the past one and a half years or so.

Police said Bahadur, who hailed from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, was living in Ashoka Park near Mata Mandir in Punjabi Bagh. While a few locals reached the spot after the collapse “around 10 pm”, a police officer, who did not want to be named, said that the locals didn’t reach out to them as it was dark and they did not notice anyone trapped under the girder.

In the morning, when Bahadur did not return home, his family members went to the spot along with some locals and found him trapped in one of the damaged trucks. His nephew called the police and informed about the incident, the officer said.

In the statement, the railways said that the grade separator at Dayabasti is being constructed by one of the agencies of northern railway and the work is in progress. Around 10 pm on Monday, one of the girders launched for the viaduct of the grade separator fell down, damaging some of the unauthorised vehicles parked below it, the statement said.

“Further investigation by the police is going on to find out any casualty/trapped person below the fallen girder. Reasons for the incidence is being examined,” the statement read.

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg said that two fire tenders along with the rescue teams were also sent to the spot. Apart from the local Punjabi Bagh police, teams of disaster management and CATS ambulance also reached the mishap spot. The girder was removed using a hydraulic crane, following which Bahadur’s body was taken out and shifted to a government hospital mortuary. Police said a case was registered.