'No one stopped to help my girl soaked in blood': Janakpuri accident victim

New Delhi (PTI): No one stopped to help her as she made desperate pleas, and her granddaughter lay soaked in blood after a car rammed into their e-rickshaw, recalled the elderly woman after the horrific accident in West Delhi's Janak Puri.

The woman was in an e-rickshaw with her six-year-old granddaughter and was on the way to her school when the tragedy struck.

"The rickshaw driver was driving very gently. Suddenly, a speeding white car collided with our rickshaw, and the three of us fell. I begged the car driver to take my baby to the hospital in his car. But he ran away," said Mercy Xavier, the girl's maternal grandmother.

The girl's mother said she got a call from a hospital staffer informing her about the accident and her mother's fervent pleas for help on the road that fell on deaf ears.

"She stopped three to four vehicles and asked for help, but no one stopped," the mother said. It was a nurse who rushed her daughter to the hospital with the help of another person.

"If help had come sooner, maybe things would have been different," the mother said, adding that the car was speeding.

Neighbours described the child as cheerful.

"Her grandmother would drop the child off at school and pick her up. We've seen her -- she was very cheerful. She had an older sister, and they lived with their parents and grandparents," said Georgina, a neighbour.

The incident happened on the morning of February 17.

The victim and her maternal grandmother, residents of Lajwanti Garden, were initially taken to Mata Chanan Devi Hospital after sustaining injuries in the accident. They were later shifted to an advanced facility in Dwarka.

The girl succumbed during treatment.

Mercy Xavier told police that around 7.40 am, she was travelling in an e-rickshaw with her granddaughter when, near the Janakpuri Fire Station, a car rammed into their vehicle, sending it toppling and throwing both of them onto the road.

The police later seized the car and apprehended its driver, who they identified as Sanjeev.

"The accused driver has been identified as Sanjeev. He was apprehended on Wednesday. Statements of witnesses are being recorded, and CCTV footage from cameras installed near the fire station and surrounding areas is being examined to reconstruct the sequence of events," an officer said.

The accident comes weeks after a 25-year-old biker died after his motorcycle fell into a pit dug by the Delhi Jal Board in Janakpuri on the intervening night of February 5 and 6.