‘I Slipped, There Was No Ground’: Trucker Recalls Near-Fatal Crash At Noida Site Where Techie Died

A truck driver who narrowly escaped a crash at the same spot in Noida’s Sector 150, where a 27-year-old Noida-based tech professional drowned in a water-filled pit at a construction site, recounted the moments leading up to the incident, saying he lost his balance and fell as there was “no ground” beneath his feet.

The truck driver, still haunted by the incident, has demanded criminal action, including invoking of murder charges, against developers and local authorities.

On January 2, the truck driver, identified as Gurvinder Singh, had a narrow escape when his vehicle met with an accident at the same location, where the road takes a sharp 90-degree turn, PTI reported.

Singh said dense fog, along with the absence of barricades, reflectors, lights

or warning signs, made the stretch extremely hazardous. In Mehta’s case as well, police pointed to poor visibility caused by heavy fog as one of the key factors behind the fatal crash.

As Singh narrated the horrific crash that he survived, he said the visibility was almost zero. “There was no signage, no reflective tape, no barricading to indicate a sharp turn. My speed was slow, but the truck’s cabin rolled into a pond-like water body, while the rear wheels got stuck near a drain between the road and the pit,” he was quoted as saying.

“When I stepped down to see what had happened, there was no ground. I slipped and fell. Some passersby noticed and rescued me. If they hadn’t come, it could have been fatal,” he added. After returning home, Singh said he thanked God and his parents for their blessings. “That is why I am alive today,” he said.

“I survived that night, but only by luck and the grace of God,” Singh as quoted as saying.

“When I saw the videos of that young boy dying in front of his father, I cried. I kept thinking what must be going through his father’s heart?”

Singh further alleged that after the accident, a man arrived in a Baleno car, identified himself as a Noida Authority official, and demanded money from him. “I kept saying my life has just been saved, isn’t that more important?” he said.

He said police personnel did not harass him, but officials linked to the authority troubled him after the accident. “The police did their duty. If there is any fault, it lies with those responsible for ensuring the road was safe,” he said.

Demanding strict legal action against those responsible for Mehta’s death, Singh said negligence led to the loss of life and murder charges should be invoked against those accountable. “This is not an accident; it is negligence that amounts to killing. A case under Section 302 should be registered against the developer who dug such a massive pit and left it exposed, and against the authority responsible for road safety,” he said.

“The young man kept pleading on the phone, ‘Papa, please save me, I will die.’ What arrangements had the authorities made there? That question will remain,” Singh said, calling for accountability so that no more lives are lost on the stretch.

Noida Techie Death

Last week software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, lost his life in a tragic incident after his car plunged into the pit while he was returning home from Haryana’s Gurugram. His car reportedly skidded in dense fog, broke the drain boundary and fell into the waterlogged pit dug for the basement of an under-construction commercial complex near a drain in Sector 150 of Noida.

The accident raised several questions, with locals alleging they had earlier approached the authorities to fix barricading around the site. Residents and the victim’s family have claimed that poor road design, the absence of signage, reflectors and barricades, and official negligence had turned the stretch into a death trap.