Cousins killed after pick-up van rams stationary truck on NH-48 Gurugram-Delhi carriageway

Two cousins were killed after the pick-up van they were travelling in allegedly rammed a stationary 10-wheeler truck on Gurugram to Delhi carriageway of NH-48 near Iffco Chowk on Thursday morning, police said, adding that the truck driver is yet to be arrested.

Police said Dimple Kumar (22) was behind the wheel of the pick-up while his cousin Vinod Kumar (25) was in the passenger seat beside him.

Police said they were transporting 700 trays of eggs from Subhash Nagar Phase-2 in Sector 12 to Nathupur in DLF Phase-2 when the accident took place around 5.50am.

Police said the truck’s left front tyre got punctured on the national highway after which its driver parked the vehicle on the left lane of the carriageway, on which traffic was moving from Gurugram towards Delhi.

They said the truck driver didn’t place any blinkers behind his vehicle nor did he turn on his indicator lights to alert approaching drivers that the truck is stationary.

Investigators said the blinkers and rear indicator lights of the truck were completely covered by mud and they were allegedly also not turned on by the driver.

Inspector Harish Kumar, station house officer of Sector 18 police station, said the truck crew had not taken any precautionary steps to alert other drivers that the truck was stationary.

He said it seems that both Dimple and Vinod did not see the truck ahead or failed to understand that it was stationary.

“There were no tyre marks at the spot to indicate that Dimple even tried to apply the brakes,” the officer said, adding that both were killed on the spot.

The SHO said the truck driver and his co-driver had dislodged the spare wheel from the chassis and were bringing it to the front to change the punctured wheel when the accident took place.

“The spare wheel was found lying on the roadside. The truck crew fled the spot soon after the accident. We are trying to arrest the driver,” he added.

Police said that an FIR under sections 304A (causing death by negligence), 427 (mischief causing damage) and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code was registered against the truck driver at the Sector 18 police station.

Ashish Kumar, the uncle of the deceased persons, said it was the truck driver’s fault as he had not switched on blinkers or indicator lights to alert others.

“The truck was in the middle of a lane. The drivers should have turned on the indicator lights,” he said., adding that Dimple hailed from Tohana in Fatehabad but grew up with Vinod’s family in Gurugram. He said Dimple was unmarried while Vinod was married and had a six-month-old daughter.

Police said this was the third accident on NH-48 near Iffco Chowk in the past fortnight involving stationary vehicles. “Two persons died after being by speeding vehicles in two separate accidents after they alighted from their trucks to fix a breakdown or puncture,” a police officer said, asking not to be named.