GURUGRAM: A 37-year-old delivery executive was killed early on Monday on the Signature Tower flyover on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, after an unidentified vehicle allegedly hit his motorcycle and he was thrown onto the concrete crash barrier, where an exposed metal pipe pierced his body, police said.
The man, a resident of Sultanpuri in Delhi, worked as a delivery executive in Gurugram and Delhi. Police said he was riding from Iffco Chowk towards Rajiv Chowk at around 3 am when the crash took place. He was declared dead.
According to investigators, the impact threw him off the motorcycle and onto the barrier that runs along the edge of the flyover. A metal pipe, about three inches across, has been fixed along the top of the concrete barrier as an added guard to stop vehicles from going over the side. Its open end was exposed, and that is what pierced him, police said.
The vehicle that hit him did not stop. Police have registered an FIR against the unidentified driver under Sections 106 and 281 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deal with causing death by negligence and rash driving on a public way. Section 106 carries a jail term of up to five years and a fine, and Section 281 up to six months, a fine of up to Rs 1,000, or both. The case was registered on a complaint from his family at the police station that covers the Sector 29 stretch of the highway.
Gurugram Police said there were no eyewitnesses to the crash. Teams are trying to establish the sequence of events and trace the vehicle. The post-mortem examination was scheduled for Tuesday, after which the body is to be handed over to the family.
A barrier meant to protect, and an open end
The detail that has stood out is the pipe itself. The extra rail along the flyover barrier is meant to make the edge safer. An exposed pipe end at rider height turns that same fixture into a hazard for anyone on two wheels who is thrown against it.
Highway design practice in India, as elsewhere, treats exposed barrier ends as a known danger. The usual fixes are to flare the end away from traffic, bury it, cap it, or join it neatly to the next section so there is no open edge facing oncoming vehicles. Whether the open end on this stretch was a gap in installation, damage from an earlier crash or a joint left unfinished is not yet known.
The highway through Gurugram is maintained by the National Highways Authority of India. Any explanation of how the pipe end came to be left open will have to come from the highway authority.
This stretch of NH-48 is no stranger to night crashes. The traffic police have marked 24 accident black spots along the Delhi-Jaipur highway in the district, as Dalimss reported in its story on the NH-48 black spots drive.
The death also follows other recent cases in which road furniture or unfinished work played a part, including the motorcyclist killed after riding onto an incomplete flyover near Sector 88A, where barricading and lighting were questioned.
Since police have said there were no eyewitnesses, anyone who was on the flyover around 3 am on Monday, or noticed a vehicle with fresh front damage, can pass on information through the emergency number 112. Under Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles Act, people who help road accident victims or report a crash are protected from civil and criminal liability and cannot be forced to give their personal details.
Families of hit-and-run victims can apply for compensation under the Union road transport ministry's hit-and-run compensation scheme, which provides Rs 2 lakh in case of death and Rs 50,000 for grievous injury. The claim is filed with the claims enquiry officer of the area, usually the sub-divisional magistrate, and police are expected to share a copy of the FIR and other records for it.
