Crane collapses on moving cars

Several car occupants had a miraculous escape when a hydra crane at an under-construction flyover site toppled over moving vehicles in Badarpur area of southeast Delhi, police said, reports HT Correspondent.

Several car occupants had a miraculous escape when a hydra crane at an under-construction flyover site toppled over moving vehicles in Badarpur area of southeast Delhi, police said.

HT Image

Following the incident, traffic on the busy Mathura Road remained disrupted for about two hours. Huge jams were witnessed on the National Highway- 2 also.

The crane belonged to a sub contractor of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and was engaged in construction work of the 4.4-km-long six-lane Badarpur-Faridabad flyover on Mathura Road.

The crane fell on traffic moving from Faridabad to Delhi on Tuesday 8.30 am. At least four cars were damaged in the incident, but the people in the cars escaped unhurt, police said.

A Maruti-800, a Zen, an Indigo Marino and a Bolero were damaged in the accident.

Those in the cars said they ducked to save themselves when they heard a huge thud.

“We ducked when we realised something heavy has fallen on our vehicle. I was on way to Hazrat Nizamuddin when the incident took place,” said T N Kaushik who was in his Maruti 800 car.

Police said all the occupants of the cars damaged in the mishap came out of their own.

Police have impounded the crane and its driver, identified as Sanjay Giri, has been arrested. A case of negligence has been registered at Badarpur.

Police said that the NHAI had awarded the contract of building the flyover to Hindustan Construction Company, which in turn had sub-contracted it.

The six-lane flyover is proposed to be a signal-free stretch, which will start near the National Thermal Power Corporation station at Badarpur and will end near the Sector 37 crossing in Faridabad.

There have been several accidents when cars got damaged near construction sites. One bus and two cars were damaged when a 400-tonne launcher collapsed at a Metro construction site on Vikas Marg in east Delhi in October 2008.