Tragedy struck a family after their two-year-old boy, who had a low blood count and needed an urgent blood transfusion, was rushed from one hospital to another four times on Sunday evening, from Dadri to Noida, only five of the family members perished in a late night accident on the Noida-Greater Noida highway.

The only ones left in the family are now the sick child and his father who were in the hospital at the time of the accident.

Ten hours after the accident, father Hari Mohan, distraught, released his son, without waiting for further treatment. “There is no one left in the family to accompany him to the hospital,” said Hari Mohan.

A day before the tragic accident, his family received a medical report stating that the child was in urgent need of a blood transfusion to save his life.

From Dadri to Noida, the child was referred four times from one hospital to another. After traveling late into the night with his family – his cousin, mother, uncle and aunts – Hari Mohan finally admitted the child to a facility in Noida. He remained in the hospital but asked the others to go home and rest.

But while returning, their WagonR rammed into a stationary truck near the Sector 146 metro station on the highway.

The exact reason for the accident remains unclear as the five occupants – Hari Mohan’s cousin Aman Singh, 27, Aman Singh’s father Devi Singh, 60, mother Rajkumari Singh, 50, and her two aunts Vimlesh Singh, 40, and Kamlesh Singh, 40 – died in the accident.

Police said all the dead were residents of Kashiram Colony in Ghodi Bachheda, Dadri.

Prima facie, the police suspect that Aman Singh, who was driving, might have dozed off and crashed into the truck, parked there due to a flat tire.

Hari Mohan said, “On Saturday evening, I was on my bike with my two relatives, while the others were in Aman’s car with my son. From Dadri to Noida, we were referred by four hospitals.

“Around 5 am, after reaching a hospital in Noida Sector 30, we were told that the doctor will come around 9 am, so we have to admit the child,” Hari Mohan said, adding that “j “I insisted that Aman, my mother Vimlesh, and aunts return home,” he said.

“Until 11 a.m., I didn’t know that my family had been killed in the accident. As my son’s treatment began, I called my brother to let him know. But I was told that these five people were dead and the bodies were in the Sector 94 mortuary.”

“I didn’t believe it. I called my father to be with my son at the hospital and rushed to the morgue to find that my entire family was dead,” said Hari Mohan.

“As my family is devastated, we decided to discharge my son on Monday around 2:30 p.m. after he received a unit of blood. The doctors said they had to administer four more units,” he said.

Since then, the child’s condition has deteriorated. He continues to have a fever, his father said, adding that they are now planning to continue his treatment after the last rites.

Meanwhile, police are yet to trace the truck driver. “Two teams were formed to catch him. The truck was registered in the name of a Mathura-based transporter,” said Pawan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, adding that the transporter was also absconding.

A case under sections 106 (causing death by negligence), 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 324 (mischief) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered against the unidentified truck driver at the Knowledge Park police station on Sunday.

Police suspect that the truck driver was returning to Mathura after unloading.

Two police officers assigned to the Integrated and Intelligent Traffic Management System (ISTMS) were suspended for negligence as the truck remained there unnoticed for almost two hours.