Father, daughter out for ice-cream dead as truck driver loses control near India Gate

A speeding dumper truck ploughed into at least three auto-rickshaws and a scooter near India Gate in the early hours of Tuesday, killing a man and his eight-year-old daughter out for an ice-cream treat and injuring two, police said.

The horror unfolded shortly after midnight when the truck driver lost control of his vehicle and ran over vehicles and pedestrians before crossing the divider and landing in the lawns of the Central Delhi boulevard.

Kewal Diwan (42) and his daughter Manya, who left their home in east Delhi's Geeta Colony on a scooter around 9.30 pm on Monday, were killed, police said.

The impact of the accident was so intense that the vehicles were reduced to a mangled heap of metal.

The driver, identified as Raman (24), a resident of Badarpur, was arrested from the spot and the vehicle seized, they said.

"We received information around 12.20 am regarding the accident near India Gate on Man Singh Road. A team rushed to the spot and found that one dumper had entered Rajpath lawns (south side) after hitting several vehicles and crossing over the footpath," said a senior police officer.

Eye-witnesses told police the dumper first hit the divider after which it hit the autos and pedestrians standing near the footpath.

A man aged around 42 years was also found lying near the dumper. He was immediately shifted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where he was declared brought dead. He was later identified as Kewal Diwan.

Manya was also declared brought dead to the hospital.

It was a family outing gone tragically wrong.

Kewal, his wife Poonam and their two daughters, eight-year-old Manya and not- quite-three Myra -- went to India Gate on a two-wheeler for ice-cream and maybe more. They were readying to return home when the accident happened