india

Updated: May 14, 2019 08:49 IST

A 27-year-old designer died after his bicycle was allegedly hit by an unidentified vehicle on Subhash Chowk flyover on Saturday night. This was the second fatal case of hit-and-run on the Subhash Chowk flyover this year.

The police said that at the time of the incident, the deceased, identified as Nagendra Sharma, a native of Basti district in Uttar Pradesh, worked at a polymer company in IMT-Manesar, was on his way to meet a friend in Sector 47. Sharma had been working in Delhi-NCR for three years and lived in Manesar, the police said.

According to the police, Sharma was going to a friend’s house from his office in Manesar and had reached the top of Subhash Chowk flyover around 8.30pm, when an unidentified vehicle hit his bicycle and sped away. The police said his bicycle rammed into the divider and he sustained injuries on the head and nose. He was rushed to a private hospital in Sector 38 by a passerby, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

The victim’s uncle Ramkiran Sharma, a businessman, said that usually his nephew took an autorickshaw to work. “Since the commute to his friend’s place was only a few kilometres, he decided to take his bicycle. He had moved to Delhi-NCR after completing his studies in Kanpur. The police recovered his mobile phone from the crash spot and called me. He was single and the family was thinking of arranging a match for him in the coming year,” Sharma said, adding that the deceased had last spoken to his family on Saturday morning.

A police official privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said the accused driver was yet to be identified.

A case was registered against the unidentified accused driver under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-A (death by negligence) of Indian Penal Code at Sadar police station on Sunday.

In a city that boasts of underpasses and flyovers continues to be unsafe for cyclists and pedestrians with the authorities failign to create a dedicated space for them on the road.

On May 6, an 18-year-old man was killed after a car hit him on the same flyover. On January 22, Mohammad Kadir, 32, a daily wager had died after his cycle was allegedly hit by an unidentified vehicle near an under-construction building in Sector 69.

According to data shared by the traffic police, in 2017, seven cyclists and 144 pedestrians were killed in road accidents in the city, four cyclists and 195 pedestrians were killed in 2016, and in 2015, nine cyclists and 191 pedestrians died in road accidents. Data for the year 2018 was not available.

Meanwhile, in another incident, a milk seller was killed after an unidentified vehicle hit his motorcycle in Dhunela village in Sohna on Monday around 1am. The victim’s uncle, Hansraj, said the rear of his nephew’s motorcycle was hit by an unknown vehicle and according to eye-witnesses, he died on the spot. A case has been registered.