‘They just drove past’: grandmother recalls moments after deadly Janakpuri collision

On most mornings, Mercy Xavier’s day began with a simple routine — walking her six-year-old granddaughter to an e-rickshaw and seeing her safely on her way to school.

On 17 February, that routine ended in tragedy.

At around 7.40am, near the Janakpuri Fire Station in west Delhi, a speeding white car rammed into the e-rickshaw carrying 78-year-old Xavier and the child. The impact overturned the vehicle, hurling both on to the road.

“My girl was soaked in blood,” Xavier recalled, her voice breaking. “I begged the car driver to take us to hospital in his car. But he just ran away.”

Dazed and injured, the elderly woman said she tried to stop passing vehicles as her granddaughter lay motionless on the street. “I stopped three or four cars. I folded my hands and asked for help. No one stopped,” she said.

Help finally came from an unexpected quarter. A nurse, aided by another passer-by, intervened and ensured the child was rushed to hospital. She was initially admitted to Mata Chanan Devi Hospital before being shifted to a larger medical facility in Dwarka.

Despite doctors’ efforts, the little girl did not survive.

Her mother said she received a call from hospital staff informing her of the accident — and of her own mother’s desperate attempts to seek help on the roadside. “If someone had helped earlier, maybe things would have been different,” she said quietly.

In Lajwanti Garden, where the family lives, neighbours struggle to come to terms with the loss. They remember the child as bright and cheerful, often seen holding her grandmother’s hand on the way to school. She lived with her parents, older sister and grandparents in a close-knit household.

Police have since seized the car involved in the crash and arrested its driver, identified as Sanjeev. Officers are reviewing CCTV footage from cameras near the fire station and recording witness statements as they piece together the events of that morning.

For Xavier, however, the investigation offers little comfort. What lingers most is not only the violent collision, but the moments after — when, she says, her granddaughter lay bleeding on a busy Delhi road and the world seemed to pass them by.

With PTI inputs