New Delhi: Three people, including two sisters, died and two others suffered injuries in a high-impact crash involving a car and a motorcycle that caused the four-wheeler to overturn in east Delhi's Shakarpur area on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, police said.
Two of the deceased were identified as Jyoti (17) and her elder sister Bharti (19), while the identity of the third victim, the motorcycle rider wearing a Zomato T-shirt, is yet to be ascertained, police said, adding they suspect he was a delivery executive.
After the accident, all seven car occupants -- members of a family from Ghaziabad -- were taken out of the vehicle by the police, they said.
According to police, the car, a WagonR, was allegedly speeding and hit the bike head-on. The impact was such that the car flipped four-five times before crashing. But the sequence of events which led to the accident is yet to be established and CCTV cameras are being scanned to ascertain the cause of the collision, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Priyanka Kashyap said, "On May 1, around 1 am, a PCR call about an accident involving a car and a bike on Vikas Marg was received at Shakarpur police station. A police team immediately reached the spot and found one damaged motorcycle and one WagonR car turned upside down."
Both the vehicles were severely damaged in the crash. The injured were identified as Rahul and Kanchan, paternal cousins of the deceased.
Kashyap said that all the four victims, occupants of the car, were taken to Hedgewar Hospital where two of them -- Jyoti and Bharti -- were declared brought dead. The remaining two suffered minor injuries, while the motorcyclist was declared brought dead at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, the DCP added.
Ghanshyam Sharma, father of the deceased, said the girls left home to attend their cousin's wedding anniversary with their other cousins. They all met at Peeragarhi and partied, and around 12 midnight the four left with their cousin Krishna, his wife and their child, Sharma said. Police said Krishna had borrowed his employer's WagonR car.
According to Sharma, around 1 am, Krishna lost control while taking a turn on Vikas Marg in Shakarpur. "The car rammed into the bike. It then flipped four-five times. I suspect that Krishna was under the influence of alcohol as he was speeding. When the accident happened, all of them got stuck in the car for a long time but were rescued by the police and the locals," said Sharma, who works with the Delhi Jal Board as a labourer.
However, Krishna, who was driving the car, said that he was not drunk and only had some beer. "I was trying to control the speed but lost balance. The speed was around 90-100 km/hr when it hit the bike. While trying to save the rider, I pulled a hand break. I didn't know the car would then flip," he said. No arrests have been made in the case so far, police said, adding that they are awaiting the medical examination reports of Krishna.
"We have registered a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence), and an investigation has been taken up. Efforts are still on to establish the identity of the motorcycle rider," the DCP said.
