‘Please save me’: Noida techie dials father after car falls in open drain amid dense fog, drowns after 2-hour struggle

A 27-year-old Noida techie met a fatal accident after his car plunged into a water-filled basement site of an under-construction building in Sector 150. Soon after he realised that he was stuck in the vehicle and could not escape, he called his father for help. Even though his father and rescue teams reportedly reached on time, he could not be saved.

The deceased identified Yuvraj Mehta worked as a software engineer in Gurugram. According to Hindustan Times report, his car broke through the boundary wall of a roadside drain in the wee hours on Sunday when he was driving on a fog hit Noida road. After falling into the open drain, he reportedly remained trapped in the vehicle for nearly two-hours as rescue efforts failed to save his life.

“My son himself called me while he was trapped. He said, ‘papa, I am stuck, the car has fallen into the drain’,” HT quoted Yuvraj Mehta's father Raj Kumar Mehta as saying.

Reflecting on the mishap, victim's father said that the rescue teams arrived on time but without a swimmer. Asserting that his son's life could have been saved, he said, “The police did reach there, but they were unable to do much because they did not have a swimmer with them. If there had been a swimmer, someone could have reached him, as the water was very deep."

As per police, Yuvraj Mehta, who lived in a high-rise building in Sector 150 with his father, was driving a Grand Vitara on the fateful day. He lost control of the vehicle while taking a turn and his car rammed into the boundary wall of the drain and fell into the waterlogged basement.

Recalling the incident, an eyewitness said that the victim remained trapped in the submerged vehicle for one to two hours. “For around one hour and forty-five minutes, he kept pleading for help, saying, ‘please save me, save me in any way possible,’” HT quoted the eyewitness as saying.

Police sought help from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the state disaster response force and the fire department teams to recover the body of the deceased.

Chief fire officer Pradeep Kumar Chaubey said, “The rescue operation took some time. We were at the spot till around 5am."

Victim’s friend held rescue teams' delayed response responsible for the tragedy and said, “The rescue teams arrived only by 2.30am and could not even enter the water till 3.20am."

According to preliminary investigation, low visibility and speeding were the primary factors that led to the accident. Assistant commissioner of police Hemant Upadhyay said, “They had dug a large drain, around six to seven feet wide. Due to poor visibility and high speed, the driver appears to have lost control."

Yuvraj Mehta’s father blamed the authorities for negligence at construction site. He filed a police complaint alleging that residents of Sector 150 had requested the Noida authority to install barricading and reflectors near the drain, but no action was taken.