GURGAON: Rampreet is unlikely to have known what hit him. The diesel tanker he was driving juddered, lurched and flipped in the blink of an eye, killing him and his co-driver on the spot.
A police case was registered, for rash driving and causing death by negligence. Rampreet, it was said, was driving on the wrong side and had crashed head-on at high speed into a Rolls-Royce.
But that’s not what happened. The theory that Rampreet was the cause of the accident on the Gurgaon-Dausa section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on August 22 has been turned on its head by CCTV footage that has come to light. Rampreet, it shows, broke no rules. It was the Rolls-Royce that was blitzing at over 200kmph and smashed into the rear of his tanker.
In the Rolls-Royce, according to police, were three passengers who sustained injuries and were taken to Gurgaon for treatment.
Delhi-Mumbai e-way accident: Convoy given uninterrupted passage at toll plaza
A police officer said the Rolls-Royce was part of a 20-vehicle convoy with two escort vehicles, which were mounted with red beacons and had security personnel in blue safari suits.
CCTV footage shows the convoy in Alipur moving towards Rajasthan at 11.11am. A few minutes later, the Rolls-Royce breaks away from the convoy, changes lanes and accelerates.
It covered a stretch of 40km and crossed a toll plaza over the next 12 minutes, which means it was clocking around 200kmph when it crashed into the tanker in Nuh (at the expressway’s 40.9km mark).
It appears the Rolls-Royce lost control and hit the tanker in the middle lane. The car caught fire and the tanker flipped.
The occupants of the Rolls-Royce were pulled out by security personnel of the convoy, which had caught up by then. The convoy took a U-turn and went back towards Gurgaon. On the way, videos show, it was given uninterrupted passage at the toll plaza.
Sources at Medanta told TOI on Thursday two passengers of the Rolls-Royce, a 49-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were brought to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. They sustained fractures and other minor injuries, and are recovering at the hospital, the source said.
Police said they got to know about the crash from a commuter while the NHAI control room got an alert about the crash. Cops and NHAI teams reached the spot 10 minutes after the accident and pulled out the three passengers still inside the truck. Rampreet and Kuldeep – both residents of Alwar – had succumbed to their injuries by then. The third passenger was injured.
“Three fire tenders were used to douse the fire in Rolls-Royce, but by the time it was doused, the car was completely burnt,” a Nuh police officer said.
The officer said it was fortunate that diesel in the tanker didn’t spill over after the collision. Had there been a leak, he said, the accident could have been far worse. The FIR that was registered on the day of the crash did not name anyone.
Watch Video: Gurugram Rolls-Royce accident CCTV shows deadly collision at 200km/hr speed
A police case was registered, for rash driving and causing death by negligence. Rampreet, it was said, was driving on the wrong side and had crashed head-on at high speed into a Rolls-Royce.
But that’s not what happened. The theory that Rampreet was the cause of the accident on the Gurgaon-Dausa section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on August 22 has been turned on its head by CCTV footage that has come to light. Rampreet, it shows, broke no rules. It was the Rolls-Royce that was blitzing at over 200kmph and smashed into the rear of his tanker.
In the Rolls-Royce, according to police, were three passengers who sustained injuries and were taken to Gurgaon for treatment.
Delhi-Mumbai e-way accident: Convoy given uninterrupted passage at toll plaza
A police officer said the Rolls-Royce was part of a 20-vehicle convoy with two escort vehicles, which were mounted with red beacons and had security personnel in blue safari suits.
CCTV footage shows the convoy in Alipur moving towards Rajasthan at 11.11am. A few minutes later, the Rolls-Royce breaks away from the convoy, changes lanes and accelerates.
It covered a stretch of 40km and crossed a toll plaza over the next 12 minutes, which means it was clocking around 200kmph when it crashed into the tanker in Nuh (at the expressway’s 40.9km mark).
It appears the Rolls-Royce lost control and hit the tanker in the middle lane. The car caught fire and the tanker flipped.
The occupants of the Rolls-Royce were pulled out by security personnel of the convoy, which had caught up by then. The convoy took a U-turn and went back towards Gurgaon. On the way, videos show, it was given uninterrupted passage at the toll plaza.
Sources at Medanta told TOI on Thursday two passengers of the Rolls-Royce, a 49-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were brought to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. They sustained fractures and other minor injuries, and are recovering at the hospital, the source said.
Police said they got to know about the crash from a commuter while the NHAI control room got an alert about the crash. Cops and NHAI teams reached the spot 10 minutes after the accident and pulled out the three passengers still inside the truck. Rampreet and Kuldeep – both residents of Alwar – had succumbed to their injuries by then. The third passenger was injured.
“Three fire tenders were used to douse the fire in Rolls-Royce, but by the time it was doused, the car was completely burnt,” a Nuh police officer said.
The officer said it was fortunate that diesel in the tanker didn’t spill over after the collision. Had there been a leak, he said, the accident could have been far worse. The FIR that was registered on the day of the crash did not name anyone.
Watch Video: Gurugram Rolls-Royce accident CCTV shows deadly collision at 200km/hr speed