While driving on the Delhi-Hapur bypass on Tuesday, a man ferrying 11 passengers realised near ABES Engineering College at Ghaziabad’s Vijay Nagar that one of the tyres of his vehicle, a CNG-driven Maruti Eeco, has been punctured. He got down from the car and started to fix the tyre. While he was at work, a Maruti Celerio coming from behind — carrying seven members of a family and a pet dog — collided with the Eeco, went on to hit a divider and caught fire.
The impact of the collision pushed the Eeco driver under his car, which also caught fire.
When the police arrived at the spot, they found two men dead – Eeco driver Rajveer, a resident of Baghpat, and a man who was allegedly travelling in the Eeco, but is yet to be identified by the police. The pet dog too died in the fire.
“At 2.26 pm, the traffic police alerted the fire station at Vaishali about a fire that had started after two cars collided near ABES college,” Ghaziabad Chief Fire Officer Rahul Pal, said, adding that two fire-fighting vehicles were rushed to the spot.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Wave City) Upasana Pandey told The Indian Express that the Eeco was carrying passengers from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Anand Vihar.
“When the driver got down to replace the tyre, the speeding Celerio hit the car from behind,” she said.
“While the driver, a passenger and a pet dog died in the fire, others travelling in the two cars escaped,” she added.
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Crossing Republic Station House Officer Preeti Garg said that the owners of the dog, Shiv Kumar, his wife Sunita and their daughter — who were travelling in the Celerio — sustained injuries in the fire and have been admitted to a hospital. “The family of seven in the Celerio was travelling to Meerut from Faridabad after attending a wedding,” she added.
“We have not been able to identify the other male who died in the fire… He was probably a passenger in Eeco,” Garg said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
