Minutes after 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta drove off the road into a water-filled construction pit in Noida’s Sector 150 late Friday night, the police were alerted.
A Police Response Vehicle (PRV) reached the area swiftly.
Within half an hour, nine policemen and fire services personnel were on the ground.
And yet, Yuvraj drowned nearly two hours later—after crying for help in the dark—while authorities waited for equipment, divers, and specialist teams to arrive.
A Crash in the Fog, a Call for Help
Yuvraj, a software professional, was returning home from Gurgaon in his Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara when thick fog caused him to lose control.
His car breached a low, broken boundary wall and plunged into an abandoned plot where a deep pit—dug years ago for a stalled construction project—had filled with water.
The vehicle was only partially submerged at first. Yuvraj managed to get out and called his father, Raj Mehta, from his mobile phone. He shouted for help as the car slowly sank into the swamp-like pit.
Timelines That Haunt
- 12:06 am (Saturday): First call to police made by Raj Mehta.
- Within minutes, A PRV reaches the area but fails to locate the car in the darkness.
- 12:20 am: After a second call, the PRV returns.
- 12:30 am: A larger police team arrives; fire services are alerted.
- 1:00 am: The SHO of the Knowledge Park police station reaches the spot.
- 1:02–1:10 am: Calls placed to State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force.
- ~2:30 am: Yuvraj drowns.
- 3:45 am: SDRF arrives.
- 4:15 am: NDRF arrives.
By the time specialist teams reached the scene, the young man they were meant to rescue was already dead.
Fear, Delay, and Allegations
Police sources say local teams tried arranging cranes and searching for divers in nearby villages.
But friends of Yuvraj and a passerby,—who attempted to enter the water himself—allege a more troubling truth: policemen hesitated to enter the pit, citing cold water and fears of submerged iron rods from the abandoned foundation.
The result was paralysis by caution, even as a life slipped away.
An Abandoned Pit, an Abandoned Responsibility
The pit—left open and unsecured for years—points to a deeper institutional failure. The Noida Development Authority’s neglect created a deadly hazard, while the emergency response exposed gaps in preparedness and decision-making.
As of Monday evening, Yuvraj’s car was still underwater, with officials unsure how or when it would be retrieved.
A Preventable Death
This was not merely an accident of fog and fate. It was the outcome of systemic callousness—an unsafe urban landscape, a hesitant rescue, and fatal delays.
Yuvraj Mehta did not die instantly. He waited. He called. He shouted. And help came too late.
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