A collision between a dumper truck and an autorickshaw at Pushta Number 5 in Delhi’s Sonia Vihar killed three people, including an infant girl, and injured several others early Thursday, according to officials cited in the report. Police and local residents helped take the injured to Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, where the deaths were confirmed.
The Delhi Fire Service said it received information about the crash at around 5.17 am. A fire service team was sent to the site, but local residents and a Police Control Room vehicle had already transported the victims to the hospital before the team arrived.
According to a Delhi Fire Service official, seven people were taken to the hospital, where two men and a newborn girl were declared dead. The report separately cites police as saying that eight people were injured in the collision, while one three-year-old girl escaped unharmed. The supplied report does not provide a final consolidated casualty figure.
The vehicles involved were identified as a dumper bearing registration number DL1LY 5990 and an autorickshaw bearing registration number DL1RAB 5531. The report said the deceased had not been identified at the time of publication.
Two injured people were identified as Raja, 32, and Rakhi, 30. The identities of two men and one woman among the injured were yet to be confirmed, according to the report. Police are investigating how the collision occurred and are working to verify the identities of the dead and injured.
The crash brought together two recurring features of Delhi’s road-safety challenge: the movement of heavy commercial vehicles and the vulnerability of passengers travelling in smaller, less-protected vehicles. The available account does not establish whether speed, visibility, road conditions, vehicle fitness or another factor caused the collision. No conclusion on the cause can therefore be drawn before the police investigation is completed.
The early response relied partly on people at the scene and a PCR vehicle to move the victims to hospital before the fire service team arrived. The report does not provide details about the condition of the road, traffic controls at Pushta Number 5, the dumper driver, or any action taken against the vehicle owner.
Police are continuing to investigate the collision, confirm the identities of those killed and injured, and determine the circumstances that led to the crash.
