Two killed as SUV on wrong side hits car on Gurugram underpass

The victims were in a white Swift Dzire, heading towards Indira Gandhi International airport. The errant car was a Mahindra Scorpio.

Two people were killed a woman severely injured on Sunday morning after a taxi they were travelling in collided with an SUV that came towards it at a high speed from the wrong side of the road in the Cyber City- DLF Phase 1 underpass in Gurugram, police said.

The spot where a collision took place between a Swift Dzire and a Mahindra Scorpio.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The victims were in a white Swift Dzire, heading towards Indira Gandhi International airport. The errant car was a Mahindra Scorpio, police said. At the time of going to print, its driver was still absconding.

The incident occurred at 5.30am in the right lane of the carriageway near Sikandarpur Metro station.

The dead were identified as taxi driver Vinod Kumar Yadav and Kishore Kumar Vishwas, who worked as a security guard. The third occupant, 30-year-old Suvarna Sripalli Gayatri, a pilot with IndiGo, is admitted to Medanta hospital.

“An IndiGo first officer was travelling by a service provider cab to Delhi airport for her flight duties this morning. The cab met with an accident around 5.30am near DLF Phase 1. Regrettably, the driver and the security guard, who was accompanying the staff member, died on the spot.The IndiGo employee has sustained injuries and is being treated in hospital... The first indications are that the accident was caused by reckless driving by the other car,” IndiGo said in a statement.

Gayatri lives in Gurugram’s Sector 61.

“A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at the DLF Phase 1 police station. Investigations are ongoing to trace the accused, who absconded following the accident ,” said Ravinder Kumar, the public relations officer of the Gurugram police.

The police said that they had tracked the abandoned Scorpio’s registration number, and based on the ministry of transport and highways website, the vehicle was owned by a Delhi resident Pradeep Kumar. The police also said a Member of Parliament sticker on the car’s windscreen was fake. The underpass opened for traffic in March 15 last year. Last December, a 21-year-old motorcyclist was killed there after being hit by a speeding sedan driven by a woman.

“The monitoring in Gurugram is extremely poor, right from the issuing of licenses till checking the traffic violations. As a result of which people in the city do not adhere to the traffic rules as they know the repercussions are low,” Sarika Panda Bhatt, manager, cities and transport, World Resources Institute (WRI), India, said. “There is also a flaw in road designs as most arterials road including the golf course road do not have proper signages, which causes confusion and cuts are located at a great distance as a result of which many motorists loose patience and drive on the wrong side of the way,” Bhatt added.