'Speeding toward dead end': App leads car to unfinished flyover in UP, vehicle left dangling mid-air

LUCKNOW: What was supposed to be a routine late-night drive turned into a near-death experience when a car following a driving direction app ended up dangling from the edge of an unfinished flyover in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj. The lone occupant, a young man from Lucknow en route to Nepal via Gorakhpur, had no idea he was speeding toward a dead end — until it was almost too late.

Guided by his digital map, the driver cruised along the Gorakhpur-Sonauli national highway around 1am, oblivious to the lurking danger. The app led him straight onto an under-construction flyover near Bhaiya Pharenda village. With no barricades, warning signs, or diversion indicators to stop him, the car shot up the incomplete bridge at high speed. Then came the horror. As his headlights cut through the darkness, they revealed a terrifying truth: the road ahead simply ended. Before he could process the sight, instincts took over. He slammed the brakes, but the car, propelled by its own momentum, skidded forward and teetered off the edge. For a split second, death loomed.

Instead of plummeting into the abyss, the car miraculously came to rest on a mound of rubble and soft earth beneath the flyover. A few more inches and it would have been fatal. The driver, dazed and shaken but alive, scrambled out of the vehicle and disappeared into the darkness.

Soon afterwards, police from Pharenda station arrived, only to find the vehicle empty. The car, a Lucknow-registered vehicle owned by Haris Siddiqui of Ramgarh (Gorakhpur), was later returned in the presence of two witnesses. Siddiqui refused to press charges, perhaps still stunned by how close the disaster came. SHO Shant Pathak said, "The driver had minor injuries and fled. The vehicle was empty, and we're investigating."


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