Engineer drowns after 90-minute wait as rescue efforts fail in Greater Noida
Greater Noida: A 27-year-old software engineer lost his life in Greater Noida after his car plunged into a deep, waterlogged pit in dense fog, with rescue teams unable to reach him in time despite his repeated pleas for help.
The victim is identified as Yuvraj Mehta, who worked in Gurugram. Mehta was driving back to his residence at Tata Eureka Park in Noida’s Sector 150 over the weekend when the accident occurred. According to police, Mehta misjudged a turn amid poor visibility. The vehicle jumped a drain before crashing into an approximately 50-foot-deep pit filled with rainwater. Investigators noted that the excavation site had no barricades, reflective markers or warning signage.
After the car fell into the pit, Mehta managed to climb onto its roof and remained there for nearly 90 minutes as water levels rose. During that time, he called his father, Raj Kumar Mehta, seeking urgent help. “My son himself called me while he was trapped. He said, ‘Papa, I am stuck, the car has fallen into the drain,’” his father had said earlier, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Teams from the police, fire department, State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force eventually reached the spot, but their movement was slowed by heavy winter fog and darkness. Police said ropes thrown into the pit failed to reach Mehta, while ladders and a crane deployed by firefighters were also unable to bridge the distance. Before he could be pulled out, the car sank completely. His body was later recovered using a boat.
Following public outrage over the incident, police registered a case of culpable homicide against two real estate firms linked to the plot, MZ Wiztown Planners Ltd and Lotus Greens Construction Pvt Ltd. Both companies denied responsibility. Lotus Greens said the land had been transferred to another party with the Noida Authority’s approval in 2019-20, while MZ Wiztown Planners’ promoter Abhay Kumar claimed the excavation already existed when the land was handed over and that the firm had not been granted permission to begin work.
The Noida Authority has also issued show-cause notices to officials responsible for traffic-related work in the Sector 150 area, and a junior engineer has been dismissed. Assistant Commissioner of Police Hemant Upadhyay told HT that the initial findings suggest that dense fog may have caused Mehta to misjudge the turn, adding that overspeeding was also being examined as a possible factor. Officials acknowledged that although streetlights were present, near-zero visibility due to fog severely limited sightlines at the time of the accident.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
