78-year-old woman, grandson die after their car is crushed between two buses in northeast Delhi

A 78-year-old woman and her 31-year-old grandson were killed after their car was sandwiched between two buses — a cluster bus and a low-floor Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus — in northeast Delhi’s Nand Nagri on Tuesday.

The impact of the accident was such that both sides of the Hyundai i10 were completely mangled. Police officials said the accident took place around 11.30am on the Durgapuri-Tahirpur Road roundabout.

Though the DTC driver, Hari Mohan, was apprehended by locals and handed over to the police, the driver of the cluster bus fled the spot.

Eyewitnesses said the car’s occupants were “badly stuck” inside the mangled vehicle and that it took half a dozen policemen and locals over 30 minutes to take them out. The rescuers had to use iron cutters, hammers and other tools to cut open the car and get the injured victims out.

“I had never seen such a horrific scene in my life. The faces of the elderly woman and her grandson were crushed beyond identification. They were in the car’s front seats. Their bodies had also been sandwiched along with the car,” said an eyewitness Inderjeet, who sells juice outside the district deputy commissioner office, metres away from the accident spot.

Another eyewitness, Ratan Singh, said the driver of the orange cluster bus was speeding and driving rashly when he lost control of the vehicle. Both the buses came from Durgarpuri Road side and were taking a right turn towards Tahirpur road, he said.

A police officer associated with the accident case said the car came from Tahirpur Road side and was caught between the two buses. The driver’s side of the car was towards the rear of the DTC bus while the passenger’s side was towards the cluster bus.

“A speeding cluster bus coming from Durgapuri Road side crashed into the passenger’s side doors of the car and pushed it into the DTC bus, killing its two occupants,” said the officer.

The deceased — identified as Leelawati Garg, 78, and her grandson Amit Kumar Garg, 31 — lived in AGCR Enclave in east Delhi’s Karkardooma. Amit was a garments trader in Gandhi Nagar.

“We have registered a case of rash and negligent driving causing deaths. Efforts are on to nab the absconding cluster bus driver,” said Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (northeast).

Leelawati’s brother, Hukum Chand Gupta, said his sister and grandson were heading towards the DC office. “Someone from the Nand Nagri police station informed us about the accident and the deaths over the phone,” said Gupta.

Amit is survived by his parents, wife, two daughters, and 84-year-old bed-ridden grandfather, Amit’s cousin Praveen Bansal said. The family hails from Kurukshetra in Haryana.

“The family had celebrated the wedding anniversary of Amit’s parents earlier this month. The entire family is in shock,” Bansal said.