Car hits e-rickshaw, crushes passenger in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A 47-year-old man died when a car collided with an e-rickshaw in Vikaspuri on Tuesday night. After dragging the e-rickshaw to some distance, the panicked car driver reversed the vehicle at high speed and ran over the passenger who had fallen off the three-wheeler. Witnesses said the man had just got up after the fall and was trying to gather his belongings.

A police officer said a case of rash and negligent driving, causing hurt due to negligence and causing death due to negligence had been registered after Jayadev Dutta, a senior creative writer with an advertisement agency in south Delhi, died in the accident.

Dutta had got into the e-rickshaw near the Vikaspuri police station while returning home at the DDA colonoy near UK Nursing Home.

People at the site reported that when the e-rickshaw tried to cut across the road towards the DDA flats, a Swift Dzire car hit it from behind. They said the car driver had been driving in an erratic fashion. Dutta, sitting at the side, toppled out of the e-rickshaw when it was rammed. Witnesses saw Dutta managing to get up, but though he tried to move out of the way when the car reversed at a high speed, he could not avoid being crushed. The car driver then fled from the site with his vehicle.

A police control room team took Dutta to the Mata Channan Devi Hospital in Vikaspuri, where he was declared dead on arrival. Rickshaw driver Mohammad Azad is being treated for his injuries in the same hospital. Police said the two other passengers in the e-rickshaw escaped with minor injuries.

Dutta’s relatives pointed out that at the site of the accident there are a number of banks with CCTV cameras installed. Footage from one of them showed the collision. “The car’s number plate is not visible, but we have given the clip to the cops,” said Pradipta Singh, Dutta’s nephew. “We pray they are able to identify the car and the driver.” Police did claim to have found some clues regarding the identity of the errant driver and are verifying the footage from the CCTV cameras to establish the number of the vehicle.

The family wished to donate the accident victim’s organs to the hospital, but his organs were too severely damaged to be harvested. Dutta is survived by his wife and two daughters, one of whom is a Class II student.