The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken serious note of a horrific incident on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, where a couple lay dead in their crashed car for over eight hours without any help arriving. The authority has issued formal notices to the camera surveillance agency and its on-duty engineer, demanding an explanation for the catastrophic failure in emergency response.
A Night of Tragedy and Systemic Failure
The victims, identified as 42-year-old contractor Lakshmi Ram and his 38-year-old wife, homemaker Kusumlata, were returning to their home in Delhi's Budh Vihar from a family visit in Rajasthan's Karauli. Their journey ended in tragedy around 11:30 PM on Tuesday night near Naushera village in Nuh. Police believe their WagonR was hit from behind by an unidentified heavy vehicle, likely a truck. The impact crushed the car's rear and pushed it into a metal barrier, partially hiding it from the main carriageway.
Despite the expressway being equipped with multiple CCTV gantries, a central control room, and rapid-response patrol teams designed to detect incidents within minutes, the crashed vehicle went completely unnoticed. A senior NHAI officer stated it was "unacceptable" that the systems failed. "It is unacceptable that a vehicle lay crashed on the carriageway for more than eight hours without being detected by the surveillance systems that the operator is contractually obligated to maintain," the officer said. The authority has asked why neither the cameras nor the patrol teams raised an alarm.
Grieving Family and a Desperate Search for Answers
It was not until around 8 AM on Wednesday that an NHAI patrolling team finally spotted the mangled car. By then, both occupants had succumbed to their injuries. The couple leaves behind four children, all of whom are minors. Lakshmi Ram's father, Devi Singh, revealed the heartbreaking detail that he had pleaded with them to stay the night in Karauli. "They said the children were waiting. They left around 7pm," he said. "None of us imagined something like this had happened."
The incident has raised grave questions about whether the couple could have survived had help arrived sooner. The NHAI's notice cites "serious lapses" in real-time monitoring and emergency response. It has sought a detailed report for the complete absence of alerts from the surveillance control room during the critical period.
Investigation Intensifies as Safety Concerns Mount
Police are now working round the clock to identify the vehicle that caused the crash. Teams are scanning hours of CCTV footage from gantries and toll plazas. "We suspect a heavy vehicle with frontal damage. We are analysing every truck that passed through the corridor that night," a senior investigator stated. No arrests have been made so far.
Officials are also examining why the expressway's extensive CCTV network failed. Initial theories suggest that a combination of camera placement, the expressway's wide shoulders, and low lighting in certain segments may have contributed to the vehicle being missed. This fatal crash adds to a growing list of accidents on the expressway, putting its much-touted safety infrastructure under severe scrutiny.
The NHAI's action highlights the urgent need to audit and enforce the operational protocols of safety contractors on India's flagship expressways. The grieving family in Budh Vihar now awaits justice and answers for a loss that might have been prevented.
