360° DARKNESS 90° TURN

Even days after 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta lost his life on a Noida road, the accident site in Sector 150 stands frozen in neglect. The sharp turn where his car plunged into an unbarricaded, water-filled pit remains largely unchanged. Poorly lit, barely secured and alarmingly exposed, report Ifrah Mufti & Anup Verma

- Ifrah Mufti & Anup Verma

The Noida techie's car plunged into this water-filled pit at a sharp 90-degree turn in Sector 150 while returning from office amid dense fog reducing visibility to near zero

SEVEN days after a young life was lost on a dark, foggy Noida road, the silence at the accident site is unsettling, not because the danger has been removed, but because it remains almost entirely unchanged.

The sharp 90-degree turn in Sector 150, where 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta died after his car plunged into a water-filled pit, continues to wait for another tragedy. A week later, the road bears little evidence of urgency, accountability, or corrective action.

The accident spot reveals glaring safety lapses. Except for a few temporary barricades placed near a small portion of the open drainage, nothing substantial has been done. There are no warning signs, no boundary walls, no protective netting to prevent vehicles from slipping into the water, and no speed breakers either, which you will find on a lot of roads in Noida otherwise. Street lighting remains poor, and there is no visible security or monitoring, raising a troubling question that hangs heavy in the air: will another such incident be averted, or merely repeated?

The pond into which Yuvraj’s car fell continues to remain dangerously exposed. Large sections of the water-filled excavation pit are completely open, posing a serious risk, especially at night or during poor visibility caused by fog. Though police installed a handful of barricades after the tragedy, residents say the measures are cosmetic at best. “Putting barricades only at one point is not enough. The danger still exists,” said Rajesh Sharma, a local resident who uses the road daily. The incident has intensified fear among locals, many of whom say accidents here were inevitable.