This was the fate of a young software engineer, Yuvraj, who, in a shocking accident that reverberated throughout the National Capital Region (NCR), died after his car fell into a deep drainage hole in Greater Noida. Though the tragedy underscores the roughness of driving under the most intense fog of North India, it’s also revealed in unprecedented detail the great bravery that a Flipkart delivery agent Moninder had to put his life on the line to retrieve the victim in subzero temperatures.
And Then, A Cold, Foggy Evening Turns deadly
The incident was sustained around 12:00 AM on an almost empty night and under heavy fog. The driver was a techie from Noida, and according to reports said Yuvraj was coming home when he approached a high-risk turn in Greater Noida. Not familiar with the absence of barriers or signage, his vehicle overran the road and plunged into a deep, murky drain. Witnesses said Yuvraj survived his first fall and was trapped in the sinking vehicle for nearly an hour and a half.
He eventually made it to his father, with the heartbreaker of it all – his last call, saying, “I've fallen into a ditch, please save me.”
The Heroism of Moninder
At 1:40 AM, Moninder was a delivery agent for Flipkart, and he noticed a panicked crowd and police standing by the roadside to complete an order. Moninder felt the sense: had rescued another driver from the precise same spot only 15 days earlier. “The government employees and police were panic stricken,” Moninder said.
“The temperature was below freezing, and many of the officers at the incident were old, elderly or did not know how to swim. They were waiting for the fire brigade.” Selflessly bravely, Moninder volunteered to get down in the water. He tied a rope around his waist and swam close to 50 meters inside the pitch-black, freezing drain. “I had penetrated so that I could not see the 100 people standing in the road. They were signaling me by torches from a distance that they would lead me up to the car,” he said.
A Rescue Too Late
Even though Moninder had bravely tried, Yuvraj ceased shouting for help only 10 minutes before he was even in the water. It took nearly 40 minutes of digging up the bone-chilling depths to finally find the vehicle and recover the techie’s body. The younger police officers were reluctant to go out in the water amid the severe cold and no swimming skills on their part, Moninder observed, and the fire brigade arrived approximately 20 minutes after his arrival, the report said.
Demanding Infrastructure Safety
The incident has shocked public understanding of safety of the roads in Greater Noida. Moninder called the turn a “death trap” and added: “There’s not even a wall in front of you for a vehicle to knock. If people are unfamiliar with the area and there is some fog, they have a 101% chance to fall in the ditch.” In the face of this, local residents are demanding prompt action from GNIDA to install high-visibility barriers, reflectors, and street lighting on the site in order to limit further losses to life.
