Engineer killed as car, bus catch fire

GREATER NOIDA: A 28-year-old engineer of a private company was charred to death as his car hit a CNG bus and the two vehicles caught fire near Galgotias University on Noida expressway on Sunday night.
According to police, Deepak Upadhyay, working with a private company in Sector 150, was on his way back to home in Sector Delta 1, Greater Noida when his Santro collided with a ‘Yamuna Sarthi’ bus on the expressway around 9.30 pm.The bus, which runs on CNG, suddenly applied brakes to deboard a passenger, and the speeding car rammed the bus’s rear portion. The car’s bonnet got entangled with the bus, trapping Deepak on his seat.
Sources said that deboarding of passengers at spots other than bus stops is against the rule on expressways.
SHO, Knowledge Park, Manish Sharma told TOI that the bus caught fire soon after collision. The car too went up in flames. “There were seven-eight passengers in the bus when the accident happened. However, Deepak got stuck since his car’s bonnet was almost under the bus. He could not get out,” the SHO said. The personnel of a PCR van which reached the spot pulled out Deepak from the car and rushed him to hospital.
Dr Sanil Kapoor, medical superintendent, Kailash Hospital, Greater Noida, said that he was declared dead on arrival at 10.49 pm.
Meanwhile, the fire destroyed the bus and the car almost completely. A slipper of a woman was found in the bus indicating that the passengers hurried to get out after the accident.“Since the vehicles almost fully destroyed, it is apparent that the CNG gas caught fire. Although, there is no evidence of a cylinder blastas of now, it has to be assessed whether the fire was due to a leakage in the pipe or the cylinder,” the SHO said.
SP (rural) Sujata Singh told TOI that the exact reason of the collision could be assessed only by technicians after examination of the vehicles at Police Lines, Surajpur. The police did not rule out the possibility of a leakage in the CNG cylinder of the bus, which caused the ignition.
An FIR has been registered against the bus driver under sections 279, 304A and 427 of the IPC on a complaint of the victim’s brother Pawan Upadhyay. The police have not yet identified the driver.
Meanwhile, his family members are in shock and have refused to talk to the media.