A 20-year-old student died after the car he was driving allegedly skidded off a slippery stretch, crashed through a boundary structure along a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) drain and overturned near the Nangal Dewat red light in southwest Delhi’s Vasant Kunj on Friday morning, police said.
Event Context
Investigators said that a PCR call regarding the accident was received at Vasant Kunj South police station around 6am on Friday. “When officers reached the spot, they found the vehicle overturned inside a DDA drain near the Nangal Dewat red light,” an officer said.
Team Analysis
Preliminary investigation revealed that Singh and his friend, both students at the same institution in the US, were heading from another friend’s house in Vasant Kunj towards the woman’s residence in the same locality when the accident occurred.
Police said that while negotiating a sharp turn near the traffic signal, Singh allegedly lost control of the vehicle due to the slippery road surface. “The car veered off the carriageway, plunged into the DDA drain and overturned,” the officer said. Both occupants sustained injuries and were taken for treatment. Singh later succumbed to his injuries, police said.
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The woman, in her statement to police, confirmed that the accident occurred after the vehicle skidded on the slippery road while taking the turn.
Singh’s family and friends alleged negligence on the part of civic authorities for keeping the drain uncovered. They said Singh studied at Sanskriti School and was a bright student. “After school, he went to the US for graduation and to be with his elder brother, who works in the US. Yashvendra was here on a long break,” said a friend who did not wish to be identified.
Responding to the incident, the DDA said a site inspection was carried out by its field staff on Friday following the accident.
“Based on enquiries made with the police personnel, it was learnt that the car was allegedly travelling at high speed, following which it skidded and overturned,” the DDA said in a statement. The authority said the vehicle “subsequently hit a nearby tree, damaged a portion of the toe wall along the nallah, and broke the concrete covers.”
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At the mortuary, Singh’s father waited for his mortal remains in the morning.
A relative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “We don’t want to get into who is at fault but whatever happened was very wrong. Singh’s father was a part of Operation Vijay in 1999 and then Operation Parakram in 2002 after the Parliament attack.”
Friends alleged that if the drain had been covered, their friend would have survived. “What’s the point of raising complaints here? Nothing happens. They just keep passing the buck,” a friend said.
Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) president of Nangal Dewat, Pradeep Sehrawat, said, “This is a drain of death. Some tankers come at night and dump kerosene here. We have written to the DDA multiple times to cover it but our requests fall on deaf ears.”
The DDA, in a statement, said, “It is clarified that a toe wall is already provided along the nallah.” A proposal to construct an RCC box drain at the location “is already under process and at an advanced stage”, the statement added.
Match Outlook
“However, the speed breakers could not be installed as the requisite approval/NOC was not granted by the traffic police,” the DDA said, adding that the traffic police informed it on July 21 that the proposal was “not found feasible from the traffic management point of view.”
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According to police, the deceased was identified as Yashvendra Singh, pursuing higher education in the United States and son of an Indian Army officer. He was residing with relatives in the Delhi Cantonment area. A female friend, who was travelling with him in her car, survived the crash, police added.
The DDA also revealed that it had earlier sought permission to install speed breakers on Nangal Dewat Road after receiving a request from the Indian Aviation Academy. According to the authority, it wrote to Delhi Traffic Police on March 23 seeking the necessary no-objection certificate (NOC) for installation of speed breakers “to address accidents caused by over-speeding vehicles.”
