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3 days after opening, first accident on Yamuna e-way
5 students injured as driver tries to avoid animal which had strayed on the Mathura-Agra stretch of e-way.
Five students were injured when their car lost control and overturned in the early hours on the Greater Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway on Sunday. The incident happened three days after the expressway was inaugurated on Thursday.
The injured persons have told doctors that they lost control of the car while trying to avoid an animal that had come in front of the vehicle.
Hindustan Times, on Thursday, had reported that the stretch between Mathura and Agra was vulnerable to the abrupt movement of Nilgai as fencing in the area was not high enough.
“It was a major accident; the car flew to the other side of the divider,” said a police officer. The vehicle has been damaged badly.
Most of the injured students study at colleges in the Knowledge Park area of Greater Noida. They were all taken to Kailash Hospital, where the condition of two of them has been said to be serious, and they have been admitted to the ICU. The other three have been discharged.
“Around 2am, a Yamuna Expressway ambulance brought the five injured to the hospital,” said Sannil Kapoor, spokesperson, Kailash Hospital. “The injured persons still at the hospital include, 25-year-olds Prashant Singh and Arpita Ghosh. Their condition is critical. Arpita is on the ventilator and is still not in her senses. Prashant has a head injury, but he is conscious,” said Kapoor.
“Prashant, who studied at Amity and works as a software engineer, told us that they were going to Agra on a weekend trip on Saturday night. When they were nearing Mathura, an animal came in front of the car and the driver lost control and rammed into the divider,” he said.
On August 2, a week before the inauguration, a speeding Tata Safari coming from Delhi, ran over Hari Singh, a youth of Akos village under Baldeo police station of Mathura district. Angry villagers blocked the expressway and began a sit-in at the spot.
