Three killed, two injured as truck hits SUV on Yamuna Expressway

Greater Noida: Three persons died while two others were injured when a truck, going from Noida to Jewar, allegedly lost balance, hit the divider, jumping on to the

Greater Noida: Three persons died while two others were injured when a truck, going from Noida to Jewar, allegedly lost balance, hit the divider, jumping on to the opposite side of the road and collided with an SUV which was coming from Siddharth Nagar, on Tuesday around 1.30 am.

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Umesh Bahadur, the station house officer of Jewar police station, said the accident took place near Jewar Bangar village. “Five persons of a family were going from Siddharth Nagar to AIIMS in Delhi via Greater Noida in a Mahindra Scorpio. Police investigations showed that a relative of the victims was admitted to the Delhi hospital for a kidney transplant. They were going to see the patient. The Scorpio was running smoothly on its way. However, when it reached Jewar, a truck on the Noida-Agra side lost balance, hit the divider, and then rammed into the SUV on the opposite side,” Bahadur said.

Police said the accident was severe and the occupants of the SUV were critically injured and trapped in the damaged vehicle. He said passersby informed the police, after which a team reached the spot and rushed the victims to a private hospital.

The deceased were identified as SUV driver Pawan Dubey, 38, Rinki Kumari, 25, and Anita, 35, residents of Siddharth Nagar. The two injured victims were identified as Suman, 27, and Subhash Kumar, 55. Police said all five persons are relatives.

The injured victims have been admitted to a private hospital in Greater Noida while the bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The accident also created a traffic jam for about an hour on the Yamuna Expressway. The police team brought cranes and cleared the road.

Bahadur said the suspect truck driver managed to escape after the accident. “We found that it was the fault of the truck driver. It appears he was speeding. It is also possible that he may have slept off on the driver’s seat and lost balance of the vehicle. We have seized the truck, which bears a Haryana registration number. We are trying to trace the suspect and the vehicle’s owner,” he said.

The victims’ family has not filed a complaint in this regard.

Last week, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) had directed Jaypee Infratech Limited, the concessionaire of the expressway, and the traffic police to reduce the speed limit on the expressway to 75 kilometre per hour (kmph) from the current 100 kmph, in view of safety of motorists due to foggy conditions. This was put into place from December 15 till February 15. Ganesh Saha, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, Gautam Budh Nagar, said that he has directed the officials to ensure compliance of the advisory.

The Yamuna Expressway witnessed 357 accidents, in which 822 people were injured and 145 others died, from January to July 31, 2019, as per an RTI reply, while in 2018, at least 659 road accidents took place which resulted in 1,388 injuries and 111 deaths.

Built at a cost of ₹12,839 crore by Jaypee Infratech, the 165-km stretch was opened for commercial operations in August 2012.