Greater Noida Expressway accident: Kin of victims recalls moments before he lost family in car collision

As he started making arrangements to reach the hospital, he got another call minutes later. This time, he was told that his mother who was also in the car along with his uncle and aunts were all declared brought dead by doctors at the hospital.

“They were all with me at the hospital till an hour ago. With my son’s health deteriorating, we had to rush him to this hospital at night and were finally able to admit him early in the morning. We were all tired and I had insisted that they go home and rest. I stayed back and now I am being asked to reach the mortuary to see them,” says Hari, as he rushed outside the hospital bare foot.

His mother Kamlesh, (40), aunts Vimlesh (39) and Raj Kumari (50), her husband Devi Singh (60) and their son Aman Singh (27) died around 6 am on Sunday when the car in which they were travelling rammed a stationary truck on the Greater-Noida Expressway. The family was returning from Noida and was going to their home in Kashiram Colony in Ghodi Bachheda area of Greater Noida.

A visibly shaken Hari reaches his pocket to find his son’s blood samples as he makes a phone call to his father Gyani Singh (62) to ask him to come stay with his son at the hospital. “My son has been weak ever since he was born. But after Diwali, his condition deteriorated. We showed him to local doctors but they couldn’t pinpoint the problem. My mother suggested we take him to a bigger facility in Dadri,” says Hari, adding that they left in his uncle’s car around 11pm on Saturday.

On reaching the Dadri Hospital, the doctors referred him to Super Speciality Paediatric Hospital and Post Graduate Teaching Institute in Sector 39 after some initial diagnosis, he adds.

Sub-inspector Yashpal Sharma at Knowledge Park police station said that it seems that Aman fell asleep and rammed the truck. “All of them suffered injuries to their chest and head. The bodies have been sent for post mortem and we have started investigating the case,” says Yashpal, who is also the investigating officer in the case.

Two years ago, Raj Kumari, who hails from Jewar, bought a three-storey house in Kashiram Colony with her husband. Her sisters, who were married to Barsana in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district and Hasanpur in Haryana’s Palwal district, shifted to the same house along with their husbands and the three families had started staying together.

Lalita Gautam, 42, a neighbour, says that all three women worked in nearby apartments as house helps and their husbands had a small business of chaff and straw. “Four months ago, they bought a second-hand car from someone in Haryana. They distributed sweets back then and today the same car killed them,” she adds.