'Yuvraj kept pleading for help': Noida techie clung on to car's roof till last breath, dialled his father, shared his location but still couldn't be saved

A 27-year-old software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, tragically died after his car collided with a drainage boundary and plunged into a deep ditch amid dense fog in Noida on Friday night. The accident near Sector 150 has sparked outrage among local residents. Yuvraj's SUV crashed through the compromised wall and plunged into a flooded pit dug for a commercial project in Sector 150 in Greater Noida. Yuvraj did not know how to swim but he desperately attempted to remain on the vehicle's roof, calling for help. Yuvraj tried to stay afloat by getting out of the Grand Vitara and climbing on to the roof, with some people passing by heard Mehta's screams and tried to help, but the car was completely submerged.

Yuvraj even dialled his father Rajkumar Mehta and told him, "Dad, I've fallen into a deep pit filled with water. I'm drowning. Please come and save me. I don't want to die." The techie climbed onto the roof of his sinking SUV, called his father, shared his location and flashed his phone's torch again and again through the dense fog and mist in a desperate attempt to be saved but in vain.

Mehta, who worked with customer data science company Dunnhumby India in Gurgaon, was on his way home when the accident happened as he negotiated a sharp turn near ATS Le Grandiose, according to a report in TOI. But the dense fog, lack of lights in the area or reflective board at the construction site made the situation worse for him.

'Yuvraj kept pleading for help'

Within a few minutes, local police, divers, and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams arrived at the scene and initiated a rescue operation. Mehta's father was also present at the spot. Since Yuvraj lives in Noida's Sector 150, his father and cops arrived at the spot in minutes but the thick fog made it tough for them to locate him. They could only hear him.

A passerby identified as Moninder even jumped into the freezing water to search for Yuvraj and spend about half an hour but was not able to find him in such adverse weather conditions. "Yuvraj kept pleading for help," he said.

"I tied a rope around my waist and went into the water myself. I searched for the youth and his car for around 30 minutes," Moninder told reporters, adding that he was later told that "if help had reached 10 minutes earlier, the techie could have been saved".

He claimed that Mehta was initially seen standing on the roof of his car, using his mobile phone's torch to signal passers-by and pleading for help.

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Yuvraj's friend Pankaj Tokas said, "He was screaming at the top of his voice for help while standing on the car roof. The cops who went initially said they could not swim. Cranes were called but no one entered the water to save him." The techie and his car were pulled out of the ditch after nearly five hours of rescue efforts. Mehta, however, was declared dead.

"Initial rescue efforts were made with the help of local divers. Subsequently, SDRF and NDRF teams reached the spot," a police officer told TOI.

Yuvraj was stuck in 30ft deep pit

Sources told TOI that the SDRF team reached the spot first, but lacked the equipment to carry out the rescue in the 30ft deep pit. The NDRF was then called from Ghaziabad, which took another hour. By 1.45 am, Yuvraj's voice had fallen silent even as his father and loved ones stood helplessly at the edge of the pit.

Yuvraj's father also told his son "don't panic, we are trying to help you". But there was no expert diver, and he found himself watching helplessly as his son lost his battle to survive.

At about 4.30 am, Yuvraj's body was eventually found nearly four hours after his car fell into the drain. According to sources, Yuvraj gradually lost strength and drowned when the vehicle sank with nothing to prop himself up, as per a TOI report.

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Yuvraj's father and eyewitnesses claimed he could have been saved with quicker rescue efforts. The father said that when he reached the spot, he again called his son but could not locate the vehicle in the drain.

"Visibility was very low and somehow when I called him, he opened the torchlight of his phone inside the car because of which we could see a faint little light from the water body. But it was so difficult for anybody to get inside the water body. The police and other rescue officials tried throwing a rope, but to no avail," he told reporters.

The father also claimed that if expert divers could have gone in, then maybe his son would have been saved.

His family has filed a police complaint alleging that the authorities had neither installed reflectors nor covered drains along the service road. The absence of reflectors along the road amid dense fog caused the accident, the victim's father said.

What the police said

Police, however, rejected allegations of negligence. Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Rajeev Narayan Mishra said police and fire department teams made efforts to save the youth and deployed a crane, ladder, makeshift boat and searchlights, but visibility was near zero due to fog.

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The police have said an FIR has been lodged on the family's complaint and the matter is under investigation. A senior official involved in the rescue said fog made the search almost blind. "We could only see a thin ray of light, likely from his phone," he added. Another official claimed rescue teams used torches and flashlights to locate him, but they could not see even 10 metres.

Noida ACEO Satish Pal told ANI, "The services of a Junior Engineer have been terminated by the authorities. An explanation has been requested from him... Further investigation is underway."

Yuvraj's father Raj Mehta, a retired SBI director, alleged the spot had long been a hazard and that repeated warnings to Noida Authority had gone unheeded. "Yes, visibility was extremely low due to fog. But had the boundary wall not been damaged, the car may not have plunged into the drain," he said. Now, barricades have been set up in front of the water-filled ditch at the Sector-150 intersection.





Noida Authority's additional chief executive officer, Satish Pal, said the matter was being examined. "We are getting the incident checked by the senior manager. We will find out if the plot is allotted to someone or still under the Authority. We will also look into allegations of negligence," he told TOI.

(With inputs from PTI and TOI)