Two sisters killed as speeding truck hits ambulance in Gurugram

Police said at least eight trucks were present at the toll plaza at the time and a police party, which was stationed about a kilometre from the area, rushed to the spot. The truck was impounded and raids were on to trace the accused driver.

Two sisters, on their way to a hospital in an ambulance, were killed after a speeding truck hit their vehicle near Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurugram in the early hours of Friday, police said.

Ambulance seen at Civil Hospital, in Gurugram. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO/Representative image)

Their brother, who was also with them in the ambulance at the time, said the force of the crash was such that the elder sister was thrown out of vehicle and was crushed underneath the truck. The truck driver fled the spot and raids are underway to arrest him, police said.

The sisters, identified by the police only by their first names Baby (25) and Sonam (17), were on their way to Gurugram’s Civil Hospital from Manesar. The family hails from a village in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and had been living in a rented house in village Kasan in IMT Manesar the past five months. They were both employed as helps in different companies in IMT Manesar.

Police said Sonam had spiked a fever on Thursday night and her brother, 36-year-old Pramod Kumar, said he decided to accompany her to a private hospital in Manesar. Kumar, who works as a driver, said the doctors at that hospital told them to go Civil Hospital in Gurugram. “At 1.30 am, we left in an ambulance provided by the private hospital. I sat in the co-driver’s seat with my seven-year-old daughter while my sisters were in the rear,” said Kumar.

Charan Singh, assistant sub-inspector (ASI), Kherki Daula police station, said a speeding truck allegedly hit the ambulance from behind near Kherki Daula toll plaza at around 2.15am.

“The collision took place 60 metres before the toll plaza as the ambulance entered one of the toll lanes... Due to the impact of the collision, one of the window panes of the ambulance was shattered and the rear door of the ambulance was thrown open. The elder sister, Baby, fell out of the ambulance and was crushed underneath the truck’s rear tyre. She died on the spot,” Singh said.

The younger sister, Sonam, was wounded and another ambulance was called in to rush her to Civil Hospital. “She was declared dead on arrival. The other occupants of the ambulance — Kumar, his daughter and the ambulance driver — suffered minor bruises. The truck’s driver abandoned the vehicle and escaped,” said, ASI Singh, adding that the errant vehicle was registered in Nagaland.

Police said at least eight trucks were present at the toll plaza at the time and a police party, which was stationed about a kilometre from the area, rushed to the spot. The truck was impounded and raids were on to trace the accused driver.

“I just wished to get the best treatment possible for my sister. In the process of taking one of my sisters to the hospital, I ended up losing both,” he lamented.

A case was registered against the unidentified accused driver under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 304-A (death by negligence) and 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code at Kherki Daula police station, officials said.