Woman wearing earphones mowed by speeding vehicle

An unidentified speeding vehicle on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) crushed to death a 22-year-old woman pedestrian who was trying to cross the expressway near Dasna on Monday morning. The police said she was wearing earphones and suspect that she was not paying attention to the oncoming traffic.

Since its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 27, 2018, the 135km Eastern Peripheral Expressway has seen a spate of accidents. The EPE stretches from Kundli and ends at Palwal in Haryana while connecting major UP areas of Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar. The maximum speed limit on the access controlled expressway is 120 kilometre per hour.

The police said the deceased was identified as Monika (single name), of Ikla village near Dasna. The incident took place around 9am near the Dasna changeover and the expressway staff informed police.

“The upper part of her body was severely injured. It appears that she got hit by a speeding vehicle. The earphone cord was found around her neck. It seems she was using her mobile phone with earphones and did not notice the speeding vehicle. Her village is far from the accident spot and we are still not clear why she walked the Dasna interchange where the accident took place,” OP Singh, SHO, Masuri police station, said.

He added, “She was identified with the help of her phone. An FIR will be registered against the unidentified driver.”

The locals from her village said the woman was on her way to her coaching classes in Ghaziabad city and was preparing for competitive examinations.

“She usually goes to Ghaziabad to attend her coaching classes and was preparing for competitive exams after completing her graduation. Our village is around 5km from the spot where the accident took place. It is surprising that she took the expressway as there are no local modes of commuting available from there,” Nitin Pradhan from Ikla said.

“Her father was employed with the police and had died several years ago. Her mother, too, died later. She was one of six siblings,” he said.

On June 5, 2018, a 22-year-old mini truck driver died after a speeding truck hit his vehicle from the rear. Also on June 5, seven members of a family were killed and nine others were injured on the expressway stretch in Palwal after the driver of the pickup van they were travelling in fell asleep.

On June 9, 2018, a cyclist was killed by a speeding Vitara Brezza near Duhai interchange .

On July 8, 2018, one person was killed and six members of his family were injured after their car was hit by a speeding Honda City sedan on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) near Masuri

On December 6, 2018, one person was critically injured on the EPE stretch falling in Greater Noida after a speeding Creta hit another vehicle.

On February 4 night a truck driver and his helper, both natives of Rajasthan, were killed after their truck collided with another truck near Naurangpur village in Jarcha area. Police said low visibility could have cause the crash.The same morning , at least four heavy vehicles going towards Ghaziabad piled up near Beel Akbarpur village due to heavy fog, injuring two people

First Published: Mar 05, 2019 02:57 IST