A 22-year-old man was killed after his car, allegedly moving at a speed of around 200 kmph inside the Dwarka Expressway airport tunnel, rammed into a wall, with the impact ripping the vehicle’s engine off and triggering a fire, police said on Thursday.
The victim, Abhinav Singh, a native of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, was travelling from Ludhiana to Gurugram, where he lived in Sector 42, when the accident occurred near the Shiv Murti interchange, officials said.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Singh was allegedly driving a modified Volkswagen Virtus at around 200 kmph inside the tunnel, where the prescribed speed limit is 80 kmph.
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He had allegedly recorded videos and photographs of the car’s speedometer and sent them to his friends through Snapchat shortly before the accident. Police are trying to retrieve the videos and photographs as part of the investigation.
CCTV footage from the tunnel shows the car speeding at a very high velocity, almost like a rocket, before crashing near a turn connecting the tunnel to the NH-48, police officials said.
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The impact was so severe that the car’s engine was ripped off and thrown some distance away, where it caught fire. Singh was trapped inside the mangled vehicle and died on the spot.
According to police, Singh was driving a luxury car belonging to a friend. He had gone to Ludhiana to meet his girlfriend and was returning to Gurugram on Diwali morning.
Police have recorded statements of security personnel deployed at the tunnel, along with other motorists and eyewitnesses present at the spot.
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The Delhi Police is investigating the accident. Singh’s body was sent for a post-mortem examination and later handed over to his family, officials said.
His mother is a teacher and lives in Bihar, they added.
The Dwarka Expressway airport tunnel has a maximum permissible speed limit of 80 kmph. Entry of two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws, tractors, non-motorised vehicles and tankers carrying inflammable substances is prohibited inside the tunnel.
