Delhi: Car crash throws biker off bridge, into Yamuna; search on for victim

A 35-year-old man, working for a tech company, is feared to have died in a high-speed collision on the Kalindi Kunj Bridge, while his wife and 10-month-old daughter were seriously injured after the motorcycle they were on was hit from behind by a car, flinging him over the guardrail and into the Yamuna river, police said on Saturday.
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As of late Saturday night, nearly 24 hours since the accident, authorities and rescue officials were still looking for the victim in the river.
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Police said the incident occurred around 8.30pm on Friday as the family was returning from Noida to their home in southeast Delhi’s Abul Fazal Enclave. An allegedly speeding Maruti Brezza struck Shami’s Yamaha FZ bike from behind, causing him to be flung into the river. At the same time, his wife, Arshi Rafiq, and their daughter sustained injuries, investigators said.
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Eyewitnesses and friends of Mohammad Shami – the victim, who works as a senior tech specialist with an international digital technology and transformation services provider company – said that the impact was so severe that even the 10-month-old infant was thrown into the air, but was saved only by the bridge’s guardrail, which redirected her fall onto the footpath.
The infant survived with fractures in her legs and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sarita Vihar, according to Shami’s friend Yash Singh.
Shami’s 30-year-old wife Arshi Rafiq, suffered fractures in her spinal cord in the accident and is admitted to the same hospital, Singh said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Ravi Kumar Singh said Kalindi Kunj police received an emergency call on Friday night reporting the accident. When police arrived, they found Shami’s heavily damaged motorcycle on the bridge, along with broken parts of the car.
Investigators said the debris appears to suggest that the driver of the offending car fled the scene after the accident.
“Enquiries confirmed that Mohammad Shami, a resident of Abul Fazal Enclave near Shaheen Bagh, was thrown into the Yamuna by the impact. His wife and daughter are currently in hospital, and a search operation was launched immediately to find him,” DCP Singh said.
A first information report (FIR) of rash and negligent driving causing grievous hurt was registered under sections 281 and 125 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Kalindi Kunj police station.
The errant driver of the offending car has been identified with the help of the broken pieces of the vehicle and scanning of CCTV cameras installed on the route it took after the mishap, police said. Raids are being conducted to arrest him, the police said.
Authorities suspect the driver may have been intoxicated.
Professional divers and the members of a boat club rescue team have been working with police and other agencies in an attempt to execute a search operation in the river since Friday night, the police said. However, their efforts have yet to yield any results.
Eyewitnesses and locals raised concerns over the low 2-3-foot guardrails on Kalindi Kunj Bridge, which lack the protective fencing installed on other major bridges in Delhi.
“Unlike the ITO and Shastri Park Yamuna bridges where iron fencing is done, there are no such safety grills installed on the carriageway of the Kalindi Kunj bridge connecting Delhi from Noida. Similar incidents have taken place in the past as well due to this reason,” said Ram Prakash, an auto driver.
Singh, a friend of Shami’s for over a decade, said the couple was returning to their Abul Fazal home from Noida along with their daughter at night when the crash happened.
He said he rushed to the bridge after receiving a call from Shami’s family and stayed there into Saturday afternoon, hoping for his friend’s return. “I was hoping they would find his body, or somehow he would turn up alive,” he said.
Shami’s family members, who travelled from his hometown in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, have been present at the riverbanks, anxiously awaiting news as the search continued into Saturday evening.