Speeding truck rams into taxi, all six occupants killed

Six persons, including four members of a family, were killed when the taxi they were travelling in was hit by a speeding truck in southeast Delhi’s Badarpur on Friday.

After hitting the car from behind, the truck dragged the vehicle some 20 metres before sandwiching it between its front portion and the road divider.

While four of the car occupants died on the spot, the other two succumbed to their injuries at Apollo Hospital, police said.

The accident occurred on a flyover on the Delhi-Faridabad highway. Police said the car was compressed to such an extent that the six occupants were stuck inside.

The rescue teams took over an hour to cut the car’s body using gas cutters.

“The victims were out on a late night trip to Faridabad in the taxi,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Mandeep Singh Randhawa.

Guran Ram, Raj Kumar, Madan, and Ram Ashish belonged to the same family in Bihar’s Madhubani district, while the fifth deceased Hari Shankar was from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.

The sixth victim Avdhesh was a resident of Madanpur Khadar near south Delhi’s Sarita Vihar. “Guran’s three relatives had come to Delhi for employment three days ago, and were staying at Guran’s room,” Randhawa added.

Guran came to Delhi three years ago and was working as a driver with a travel agency in Madanpur Khadar. He lived in a rented house there. The Maruti WagonR taxi which he used to drive belonged to the travel agency.

Late on Thursday, Guran his three relatives and two neighbours had food together at his room after which they decided to go for a late night drive to Faridabad.

Guran used to keep the company’s car with himself as he used to leave home early in the morning.

“All six of them sat inside the car and left for Faridabad. The car had moved about 20 metres on the flyover when the speeding truck hit it on its right side from behind,” a police officer added.

“Due to the impact, the car rolled on its right and was smashed again by the truck which dragged it to some distance before sandwiching it between the road divider and its front portion,” he said. The truck driver fled from the spot, but left his vehicle there.

A case of rash driving and causing death due to negligence has been registered and the truck driver, identified as Laxman Shah, also from Bihar, was arrested on Saturday afternoon.

The bodies were handed over to their families after post-mortem at AIIMS.