4 of family die as car crashes into tree

Four members of a family died and five others were injured when a heavily loaded sedan crashed into a tree in outer Delhi’s Kanjhawala in the early hours of Monday.

Police suspect the accident took place as the car driver dozed off. The occupants of the car included two brothers, their wives and five children. Residents of Haryana’s Kharkhoda town, the family was returning home after a visit to Sheetla Mata Temple in Gurgaon. The accident took place at about 6 am.

The stretch of Kanjhawala Road, on which the accident took place, is narrow in many parts because of presence of trees on the road. At places, there is scope only for one four-wheeler to pass through at once. Signboards warning that the stretch is accident-prone dot the road, including one sign barely metres ahead of the accident spot.

However, the tree into which the recently-bought Swift Dzire car crashed into was not located on the road. No other vehicle’s involvement in the accident has been reported either. “The accident appears to be a result of high-speed of the car and a dozed off driver,” an officer said.

A visit to the accident spot suggests the car skid off and deviated from the road before ramming into the tree. The impact of the crash was such that the entire front portion of the car was reduced to a mangled heap of metal.

A case of rash and negligent driving and causing death by negligence has been registered against the driver at Kanjhawala police station.

The accident was reported to police by people accompanying a milk van. “The milk van was coming from Sonepat to Delhi. One man from our village was in that van and he recognised our family members. He informed us about the accident,” said Naresh, brother of the two men killed.

Sanjay Aggarwal, 35, was behind the wheels and his brother Sonu was seated beside the driver’s seat, his family said. Both were killed. Others dead were Sonu’s wife and his four-year-old son Abhishek. Police said they were all declared dead when brought to a nearby government hospital.

The injured were later referred to Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, where all of them received treatment. Sanjay’s 15-year-old daughter Chetna’s condition is said to be critical despite undergoing surgery.

The family ran grocery shops in their native village. The bodies were handed over to the family after post-mortem.