“The children did not notice the speeding Innova car coming from the Sector-39 side while crossing the road. It seems that the driver didn’t see them either as he barely applied the brakes before hitting the children,” said an eyewitness.

The vehicle hit Renu and Chandni first and they fell to one side of the road. But Lakshmi was dragged about 20 metres by the car before it banged into the roundabout. She died on the spot.

“The impact was such that the 13-inch high wall of the roundabout was shattered into pieces. And the girl was squashed between the car and the roundabout. I shudder to imagine what the victim went through,” said another eyewitness. The car driver, identified as Satinder Singh, has been arrested on charges of rash driving and causing death due to negligence. “The car belongs to an official of the Bhaddal Engineering College. He lives in Sector 40 and the driver was going to pick him up,” said a police officer.

Father of the deceased, Ram Vilas, is a resident of Sector 56 and works as a daily wager. The family hails from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. Lakshmi was the youngest of five children. “I still remember the moment she waved goodbye to me. I did not envisage that it would be her final goodbye,” he said.

School remembers Lakshmi as ‘quiet but hardworking student’
When the news of Lakshmi’s death was announced in the morning assembly at Government High School, Sector 40, the teachers and students were enveloped by grief. Lakshmi was a student of Class VIII in the school.

Speaking to Newsline, Principal of the school, Harparkash Kaur said, “We received the news of the accident from some students. As soon as I got to know of Lakshmi’s death, I rushed to the hospital alongwith several teachers.”

For the teachers, Lakshmi was a “quiet but hardworking student”. “She was admitted in the school in Class VI and ever since I have been her class in-charge. She had the zeal to excel. She never gave me a reason to complain as she was a very quiet child,” said Shalini.

“Since it was a Board class, I always encouraged her to work hard. She was hopeful of passing with flying colours but destiny had other plans,” added an emotional Shalini.