Delhi e-rickshaw menace turns deadly: 4-year-old standing with mom outside school crushed to death

NEW DELHI: A four-year-old boy died after a rashly driven e-rickshaw hit him outside a school in southwest Delhi's Chhawla on Feb 3. Police arrested the e-rickshaw operator.

The boy, Aarav, who was set to be enrolled in school soon, was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead.


At least three children had lost their lives in accidents involving e-rickshaws in the city last year, reinforcing a general perception that they are an unsafe mode of transport.

Aarav accompanied his mother and aunt to the school to pick up his elder sister in the afternoon. They were waiting near the school gate around dispersal time, his father, Bharat Sharma, said. The area was crowded, with around 10 to 15 parents waiting for their wards to come out of the school.

At around 2pm, minutes before the classes were to end, an e-rickshaw hit Aarav, who was holding his mother's hand. He fell down and was run over by the vehicle, which then sped away, Sharma, a sales executive and a resident of Goyla Dairy in Chhawla, said.

Aarav's mother Janki and her sister-in-law, Archana, took the unconscious child to a hospital in Dwarka in another e-rickshaw. Doctors examined him, but he had died by then.

A case under sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Chhawla police station on Feb 4.

Cops scanned CCTV footage before catching 25-year-old Deepanshu, the e-rickshaw operator, who lives in Goyla village.

Sharma said the family was looking to a new chapter in Aarav's life. "We were planning to enrol him in school this year. He was excited to begin his classes. But our dreams have been shattered," he said.

In March last year, a 10-year-old child lost her life after being crushed by an e-rickshaw in Jailorwala Bagh in northwest Delhi's Ashok Vihar. In Aug, an eight-year-old girl died after an e-rickshaw overturned and fell on her in northeast Delhi's Jafrabad. In Oct, a five-year-old girl was killed after a speeding e-rickshaw lost control, overturned and hit her whileshe was playing near her home in southwest Delhi's Uttam Nagar.