Crane topples on cars in South Delhi

Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009

Four cars damaged, none hurt as hydra crane at flyover construction site falls during morning rush hour

Four cars were damaged after a hydra crane at an under-construction flyover site fell on them in Badarpur, Southeast Delhi, on Tuesday morning.

No one was reported injured.

The mishap occurred at 8.30 am near the Jaitpur crossing traffic signal, when the crane fell on early-morning traffic moving from Faridabad towards the Capital. At least four cars were damaged in the incident; people inside them "miraculously" escaped unhurt, police and rescue officials said.

A Maruti-800, a Maruti Zen, a Tata Indigo Marino and a Mahindra Bolero were damaged in the accident.

T N Kaushik, who was driving the Maruti-800 on which the crane fell, told Newsline, "I was going to Nizamuddin railway station to receive my sister and brother-in-law when the incident occurred. I and a relative accompanying me were in the car when it fell suddenly — the car's roof bent down due to the impact." Kaushik lives in Sector-24, Faridabad.

The others who bore the brunt of the mishap were Sumit (driving the Bolero car from Jattari to Delhi with two others), Nikhil Sharma (headed for his office in Noida in the Zen), and Sunil Kumar Aggarwal and two of his friends — all residents of Agra — who were on their way to Mayapuri in their Indigo car.

The police have confiscated the crane and arrested its driver, identified as Sanjay Giri, for negligence. Police officials said further aspects in the case are being investigated. They added that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had awarded the contract for building the flyover to Hindustan Construction Company, which had sub-contracted the work.

The six-lane elevated Badarpur-Faridabad flyover on Mathura Road is proposed to be a 4.4-kilometre signal-free stretch. It stretches from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) station at Badarpur to the Sector-37 crossing in Faridabad.

Original news source http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Crane-topples-on-cars-in-South-Delhi/561305