Two people died in a horrific accident in Haryana's Nuh on Tuesday after a Rolls Royce Phantom - an uber-luxurious limousine - smashed into an petrol tanker on the New Delhi-Mumbai expressway. The Rolls Royce was reportedly being driven at 230 km per hour.
Three people - occupants of the car - were injured and are being treated at a Gurgaon hospital. According to news agency PTI, they are Divya and Tasbir from Chandigarh, and Vikas from Delhi. The two killed were the tanker driver, Rampreet, and his assistant Kuldeep.
Visuals from the site showed little left of the Phantom, which costs over Rs 10 crore; one video showed the front reduced to pile of mangled metal with the engine on fire and debris surrounding the vehicle. The doors of the car were open revealing a bright orange interior.
Far less was left of the tanker; images showed a crumped pile of brown metal lying by the side of the highway as locals revealed to NDTV events following the accident.
"On that day, after we got information of the accident, we arrived on the scene within five-six minutes. By this time the accident was over... and the tanker was on fire. But there was nobody in the car... they had left," one local explained.
READ | Tanker-Rolls Royce Collide Head-On Near Gurugram, Both In Truck Dead, All In Car Survive
Police had earlier confirmed this - that the five occupants of the Rolls Royce were swiftly removed, presumably by relatives or those following them in another car.
"There were maybe 5-7, maybe eight, cars in a group... each was a 'super car'. There were also escort cars in the front and rear. They took the people from the car, put them ino another and took them away," the eyewitness said.
The man attempted to re-create what he believed was the sequence of events leading up to the accident. "The tanker was coming from this lane (pointing to the far side of road). It stopped there and waited to make a U-turn. The road was clear and truck started turning but the car was travelling so fast... the control room recorded its speed as 230 km per hour."
A second man spoken to NDTV and expressed disappointment that the tanker driver was being held responsible for the accident. "They are poor people... working for a living," he said as he hit out at 'stunt drivers' who race cars up and down the highway on Sundays.
Ashok Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector of Nuh Police, told NDTV those in the tanker were regulars on this route and both vehicles were coming from Delhi when the crash occurred.
"Eyewitness say the car was speeding and this led to the accident. We cannot confirm this at this time, or the speed at which it was being driven. The investigation is ongoing," he said.
"There is space for a U-turn at the accident site but we are still establishing the sequence of events. We do know the tanker was hit on its side. We are presently taking the statements of those injured and will go to the Gurgaon hospital for this soon," he added.
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