Jinx of Lodhi Road claims 26-yr-old

A young landscape architect is killed after a truck hurtling in from the Nizamuddin side jumps the Dyal Singh College red light and smashes into her Maruti Swift at the crossing, reports Vijaita Singh.

The jinx of Lodhi Road has struck again. A young landscape architect was killed after a truck hurtling in from the Nizamuddin side jumped the Dyal Singh College red light and smashed into her Maruti Swift at the crossing around 2.30 am on Sunday.

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Shreya Anand, 26, was to get married on February 20, a senior police officer said. She lived in Vasant Kunj, and was going with her fiancé Kabir Gossain, 29, to his home in Hauz Khas after dinner at Khan Market. Kabir was driving.

The Swift was completely crushed. Shreya succumbed at the Jai Prakash Narain Trauma Centre near AIIMS. Kabir, who works with Hindustan Unilever in Gurgaon, escaped with fractures and a head injury.

“Kabir did not want to go out… But his mother insisted that he took Shreya out for dinner. See what has happened now,” said an inconsolable relative at Kabir’s home.

The truck had not only jumped the signal, it wasn't even supposed to be there — it is illegal for heavy vehicles to enter the NDMC zone any time of the day or night.

The killer driver, Mohammad Aslam, 34, has been arrested. “He told us he jumped the traffic signal, and could not see the car in the foggy haze,” the officer said. “The truck dragged the car for 10 meters and stopped only after it hit the footpath.”

Even on completely clear nights, visibility is a major problem on Lodhi Road, on which large trees cast dark shadows, and a thick canopy of leaves shuts out much of the street lighting. The road is perhaps the most dangerous in Delhi, having seen six deaths in road accidents in 2007, and seven in 2006. A decade ago, the Sanjeev Nanda-BMW hit-and-run made the crossing infamous, and repeated outrages since then have added to its sordid reputation.