Delhi man drives burning car aside to save others, loses family

An official at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where the bodies were taken for autopsy, said, “The bodies were charred beyond recognition, they were burnt right through.”

Even as a blaze spread quickly in his car, Upendra Mishra drove it to the side of the flyover before exiting and saving his daughter, said eyewitnesses.

Delhi man drives burning car aside to save others, loses family (Photo by Satyabrata Tripathy/Hindustan Times) Representative Image (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Stopping the burning car in the middle of the busy Akshardham flyover could have soon turned into a death trap for other vehicles.

“The car’s rear portion had caught fire,” said Babloo Kumar, who works at a tent house close to the accident site. “In the time, he slowly moved towards the footpath to stop the car. More than half of it had been engulfed in the fire. The man jumped out and pulled out his daughter who was sitting next to him in the front. Other commuters passing by tried to unlock or break open the rear door but failed. We feared that the car may explode and maintained a safe distance.”

Fire officials said the rear doors may have been locked.

Mishra tried repeatedly to break open the rear doors of his car to save his family. “People held him back else he too would have died in the fire. He was crying loud and was screaming for help. However, the heat was so much that none of us could even stand close to the vehicle,” said Karan Sarkar, another witness to the incident.

An official at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where the bodies were taken for autopsy, said, “The bodies were charred beyond recognition, they were burnt right through.”

An auto driver who had also stopped by to help the family, said the traffic cops had reached the spot in time and cleared the traffic. “One carriage way on the flyover had to be blocked. The traffic was disrupted. Meanwhile senior police officers also arrived at the spot along with fire tenders and ambulance. The firemen doused the fire.Police cordoned off the area and we were asked to keep away from the spot. Police called a crane which move the gutted vehicle away and traffic was restored,” said Prashant Kashyap, the auto rickshaw driver from Anand Vihar.

Police said Mishra owned the car and used to drive it for the online used car selling company. They said since he had planned a family outing on Sunday, he didn’t take the car to work and took the day off to spend with family.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said that Mishra, a driver by profession, is in a state of shock. “We will ask him sequence of event to find out reason of fire in the car later,” Singh said.