A tragic collision on a busy capital corridor has once again highlighted the grim vulnerabilities faced by gig workers and two-wheeler commuters on Delhi roads. For 33-year-old bike taxi rider Darab Singh, a resident of Faridabad, the incident marks a devastating turn of fate. After spending more than three years confined to bed due to a severe and debilitating health crisis, Singh had only recently gathered the strength to return to work to support his struggling household. Yet within mere weeks of resuming his livelihood, an unexpected rear-end collision involving a public bus took the life of his young passenger and returned him to a painful state of physical immobility and unemployment.
A Long Battle with Illness and a Fragile Return to Work
Singh is the father of two young children who had endured profound poverty while he was incapacitated. For over three years, a serious chest infection had left him entirely bedridden, pushing the household into such severe distress that providing basic daily meals for the children had become a desperate struggle. Determination to feed his family saw him overcome the prolonged infection and return to the app-based commercial mobility sector in January, signing on to ferry passengers on his motorcycle via the Uber platform. The daily earnings were beginning to offer the small family a faint glimmer of stability before tragedy struck anew.
The Morning Commute from Sheikh Sarai toward Noida
On Monday morning, Singh accepted a trip request commencing from Sheikh Sarai with a drop-off destination in Noida. The passenger was 22-year-old Hrishita Lahon, a native of Assam who held a degree in English literature and lived in the Panchsheel Park neighbourhood of South Delhi. She boarded Singh's two-wheeler around 10 am to travel toward Noida across the Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway corridor. As they passed the Ashram flyover, their motorcycle was struck from behind without warning by a sky-blue Delhi Transport Corporation bus.
Violent Rear Impact Shattered Both Helmets
The impact of the crash was exceptionally severe. Describing the moment of collision, Singh recounted that a sky-blue bus hit them from behind, causing both their protective helmets to break under the force of the strike. His subsequent recollection remains hazy, remembering only that a passerby woman came forward to assist them and coordinated their immediate transport to Jeevan Hospital. The collision left Lahon critically injured on the roadway, while Singh sustained extensive trauma across his extremities.
Fatal Injuries, Lack of Witnesses, and Hospital Transfers
Following emergency triage at Jeevan Hospital, Lahon's deteriorating condition prompted her transfer to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Sarita Vihar for specialised trauma care. Despite intensive clinical intervention, the 22-year-old succumbed to her extensive injuries at approximately 2 pm that afternoon. Police received notification of the incident at 12:58 pm through a medico-legal case report. Investigators arriving at the Ashram flyover stretch found no closed-circuit television cameras installed at the exact accident spot, and efforts to trace immediate eyewitnesses yielded no statements. By the time officers arrived at Jeevan Hospital, Singh had already departed after receiving initial medical attention, though his own medico-legal assessment documents deep trauma injuries from the impact.
Bedridden Again and Haunted by the Loss of a Passenger
The aftermath of the crash has pushed Singh back into the very misery from which he had spent three years trying to escape. With painful injuries affecting his hands, knees, and feet, he remains bedridden and unable to walk or resume driving his motorcycle. Beyond the crippling loss of daily earnings for his two children, Singh remains haunted by the psychological trauma of knowing that the young student seated on his pillion did not survive the journey.
