Hours after a speeding truck mowed down four people and injured two others sleeping on a road divider in Delhi's Seemapuri, the driver was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Shamli on Wednesday, 21 September.
The incident happened around 1:51am at the DTC Depot traffic signal in the city.
While two people died on the spot, one was declared brought dead and the fourth died during treatment, the police said.
DCP (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said that the truck driver was driving rashly and speeding negligently when he ran over the victims.
The deceased people were identified as Kareen (52), Chotte Khan (25), Shah Alam (38), and Rahul (45). The two injured persons were identified as 16-year-old Manish and 30-year-old Pradeep.
A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) against the accused driver, police said.
"We checked footage of several CCTVs and identified the offending vehicle. Driver Sidhir Kumar (36), a resident of Kapashera, has been nabbed from Shamli after analysing the CCTV cameras. The Vehicle has also been seized," Sathiyasundaram said.
The CCTV footage, which has gone viral, also showed the truck hitting an electricity pole causing the street light to go off, after running over the people.
Witness Recounts Incident
Manish, a resident of Harsh Vihar in Sahibabad, who received injures in his hand recounted the incident.
"I came here (near the incident site) around 8 pm last night to sell scrap items. It took some time and after having dinner, I slept on the divider. The vehicle first ran over my hand and I fell on other side of the divider," he said.
"It then ran over the other people sleeping on the divider, hit a pole and sped away," Manish said. He was discharged from the hospital after treatment.
On 16 September, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora had launched the Delhi Road Crash Report 2021.
This was the first time that the Delhi Traffic Police had replaced the word 'accident' with 'crash' in this annual report, formerly titled as 'Road Accidents in Delhi,' a statement said.
The change is on the basis that 'crashes' are events that can be prevented, and are open to rational analysis and remedial action, while 'accidents' suggest that they are inevitable, it said.
According to the report, the crash classification during day and night showed that in 2021, 561 fatal crashes occurred during the day and 645 during the night, despite fewer vehicles at night.
In 2020, there were 551 fatal crashes during the daytime and 612 during the night-time, it said.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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