Callous driver was in hurry to drop kids

Their only child was snatched away from them just because a newly-appointed, callous cab driver was in a hurry to finish his shift, HT reports.

Their only child was snatched away from them just because a newly-appointed, callous cab driver was in a hurry to finish his shift.

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Sumit, the driver of the speeding Maruti Suzuki Omni Van that careened fatally in a bid to avoid waiting at a busy Dhaula Kuan intersection on Tuesday afternoon, had been hired “recently” at the suggestion of five-year-old Gauri Trivedi’s school.

“Some weeks ago, the school had suggested that we hire a private cab,” Pushpa Kalra, the maternal grandmother of the Upper Kindergarten (UKG) student said.

“A couple of us neighbours had decided to go ahead with it by pooling in money since we had no other choice,” she added.

A student of Air Force School at Subroto Park, Gauri was among seven to eight students aged between five and 10 who were travelling in the van when the accident took place on Cariappa Marg, opposite Dhaula Kuan Metro station around 1:35pm.

The van was en route west Delhi’s Hari Nagar and adjacent Uttam Nagar and was, according to a traffic policeman, travelling at very high speed when its driver failed to spot a Maruti Swift approaching from behind and chose to jump the signal and took a U-turn.

According to a traffic policeman who witnessed the accident, the impact of the collision was such that the van was set off balance, making it tilt and finally fall over on its left side crushing Gauri’s neck in addition to inflicting fatal head injuries.

Another student named Kanika Goyal was also injured in the accident but was fortunate enough to be discharged after being administered first aid.

Meanwhile, around hours after Gauri had been admitted, her inconsolable mother, while struggling to let her tears from flowing at Safdurjung Hospital, managed to say, “We will talk. But now not.”