Gurgaon: On Sept 28, Gautam heard a sound that was far removed from the screeching sound of brakes — the cry of his newborn daughter, Garima.Three years after a fiery crash tore through his life, the 29-year-old tanker worker has begun building it again — a wife, a child, a job and a home that needs him. Yet the smallest things — a car passing too close, sudden braking, a burst of speed — can still pull him back to Aug 22, 2023.“I remember the sound of the vehicle, then the brakes and then the impact,” he says.That morning began like many others. Gautam had worked for 5-6 years with the company, filling diesel and cleaning vehicles. Kuldeep was his supervisor and Rampreet drove the tanker. The three travelled together regularly.They were making a U-turn between petrol pumps on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway when everything changed.“We looked a left. Two cars were coming towards us, so we let them pass. We looked again, but for kilometres we did not see anything. The next thing I heard was a loud screeching sound and then the impact. The truck had overturned,” he recalls at his Nuh home.The tanker was hit by a Rolls-Royce Phantom, which erupted in flames. Kuldeep and Rampreet died. Gautam, the third person in the tanker, was thrown on to the road and lost consciousness. When he came to, his colleagues were lying elsewhere, neither moving.A convoy travelling with the Rolls-Royce stopped. Gautam says two injured occupants of the luxury car were pulled out and taken away, while he and his colleagues were left behind. An ambulance arrived after police and NHAI personnel intervened. He reached hospital about an hour after the crash. It was only 2-3 days later that he learnt Kuldeep and Rampreet were dead.Recovery was slow. Gautam spent about 3 months confined to bed, followed by another month or two when even walking was difficult. His brother and sister-in-law helped him through daily life.“He gets irritated or annoyed quickly. He doesn’t speak to us often. He rather sits in silence,” his sister-in-law says. “He just does his work around the house. Outside, but has been silent since the accident.”His body healed enough for him to work again, but not completely. Treatment has stopped, yet stiffness and pain still return to his waist and leg, more so when he lifts something heavy.Then came the less visible burden – money. Months without work pushed the family into debt. Treatment and household expenses were met through borrowing, while his father, Shivcharan, a mason, tried to help.Almost 2 years after the crash, Gautam found work at a petrol pump. He stayed there for a few months before moving to loading and unloading work in Sohna.Life slowly acquired new milestones. He married in Dec 2024. On Sept 28 this year, Garima was born.“Ab toh bas apni beti ke liye zindagi behtar karni hai (Now, I just want to make my daughter’s life better),” Gautam says.His wife says he rarely talks about the crash. “I don’t want to take him there because it pains him. He normally also doesn’t speak much,” she tells TOI.His father, now around 85 and living with the effects of paralysis, remains worried about money. Shivcharan continues to work whenever his health permits.“For daily needs, I still have to go to work. There are so many expenses that have to be taken care of. People still remind me of the money that I owe them. How do I let my children and grandchildren get humiliated for it?” he asks.Gautam can travel in vehicles again, but only on one condition. “I just tell the driver to drive slowly. Speed makes me anxious,” he says.The crash also left a legal trail that has moved far more slowly than his life. Nuh police chargesheeted Vikas Malu on Dec 5, 2023, under sections 279, 337 and 304A of the IPC. The chargesheet relied on CCTV footage, speed data and other evidence and named 38 witnesses. The prosecution case is that the Rolls-Royce struck the tanker at high speed as it turned.The trial has since been repeatedly delayed by exemption pleas, litigation, medical treatment abroad, non-appearance of witnesses and other procedural hurdles. Charges were framed in 2026, after the court found a prima facie case. Malu pleaded not guilty.Gautam has appeared in court once or twice but does not follow every turn of the case. What he wants is simpler than the legal chronology – an ending.“Ab toh bas faisla ho jaaye (let there be a decision now). We have suffered in several ways. I just want things to be normal for my son and our family,” his father says.Three years on, Gautam’s life is no longer defined only by the road that nearly took it away. There is a daughter to raise, debt to repay, work to hold on to and pain that occasionally returns without warning. Then there are Kuldeep and Rampreet — two colleagues who never came home.For most people, the sound of brakes is forgettable. For Gautam, it is still a doorway to Aug 22, 2023.
