Delhi air pollution: Video of car pile-up on Yamuna Expressway shot last year, says report

Wednesday saw Delhi face some of the highest levels of pollution it has seen this year. The air quality index of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had a score of 487 on a scale of 500, indicating ‘severe’ levels of pollution. In the midst of all this a video went viral on social media sites and WhatsApp groups showing a major pile-up of cars on the Yamuna Expressway due to low visibility caused by smog. Many major publications carried it as a portrayal of the current situation on the ground.

However, Outlook has reported that the video was, in fact, shot in 2016. The confusion might have been caused due to the fact that a similar accident did take place on the Yamuna Expressway on Monday morning. Hindustan Times reported that six people were injured when 13 vehicles piled up on the Expressway in Greater Noida’s Dankaur area due to low visibility on Wednesday morning. The report quoted Dankaur’s station house officer Farmood Ali Pundir as saying that the collisions took place on both sides of the expressway near the under construction eastern peripheral flyway. He added that five vehicles going to Agra and eight to Delhi collided on the expressway. The Outlook report also stated that  The Indian Express had carried the video in December 2016 alongside a report of an accident which killed one and injure 10 on the Yamuna Expressway. That report quoted Additional Superintendent of Police of Greater Noida, Abhinandan, as saying that due to low visibility, a car rammed into a tractor trolley, leading to a pileup involving a dozen vehicles. Mohan Guruswamy also put up the video on his Facebook timeline but on Thursday addressed the controversy around it in another post where he pointed to a November 2017 report in The Indian Express which carried the video.

However Outlook, in its report, does mention that The Indian Express carried the video without realising that it is an old one.