Yamuna Expressway claims 3 more lives

Greater Noida: Three young men were killed on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday after the car they were travelling in rammed into a truck from behind at zero point in Knowledge Park area of Greater Noida on Yamuna Expressway. The incident occurred a day after five persons were killed in a tragic road accident at Yamuna Expressway in Sureer area of Mathura.

According to police, the incident occurred around 1 am. The deceased have been identified as Gaurav Kaushik (23), Praveen Kumar (28), both natives of Raheespur in Ghaziabad and Pankaj Singh (30) from Govindpuram area in Ghaziabad.

Police officials said that the trio of victims were friends and were travelling in Gaurav's Wagon R car. "They had gone to attend a marriage ceremony of Gaurav's friend's sister in Aligarh's Khair area and were returning home when the incident took place" said police.

Vineet Jaiswal, Superintendent of Police (rural), Gautam Buddh Nagar said that the intensity of the collision was such that the car was completely damaged and police had to use cutters to pull out victims from the mangled car.

"A few passerby conveyed the information and highway patrolling police and a team from Knowledge park police station rushed to the spot. The front end of the car was completely collapsed and all the three victims were trapped inside. All the three victims were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were declared brought dead by the doctors" said Jaiswal.

The officer further said that the car was driven at a high speed when it collided with the truck.

"Prima Facie it appears that the car was speeding when it rammed into the truck. The truck driver fled the spot after the incident while we have registered a case under section 304 A (causing death due to negligence) against the truck driver" added Jaiswal.

A senior police officer told that deceased Gaurav Kaushik was an MBA graduate and he worked as marketing head with a private company in Gurugram. He was eldest among the three siblings including one brother and a sister while his father had died three months ago due to cardiac arrest. Gaurav got married in November 2016 and also had an 11-month-old son Ayansh. Pankaj Singh also worked in the same company with Gaurav.

Deceased Pravin Kumar worked as a supervisor with a Noida-based factory and got married last year. Pravin was third among his four siblings including two elder brother and one younger sister.