Lucknow: At least 17 people were killed and 55 others injured in six separate road accidents across Uttar Pradesh Monday, a day after Diwali celebrations. Several crashes occurred in the early morning hours, officials said. The deadliest accident took place in Muzaffarnagar, where six people were burnt alive after their car overturned and caught fire following a collision with a divider and an electric pole.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences and directed officials to provide all possible assistance to the victims’ families. The accident occurred around 4.50 am near Jagahedi village under the Titawi police station area on the Panipat-Khati ma highway. The victims, aged between 19 and 22, were residents of Hisar in Haryana and were travelling to Haridwar. SSP Suraj Kumar Rai said the car was suspected to have been speeding when the driver lost control. Police and fire brigade teams rushed to the spot, but all six occupants were declared dead at the district hospital. In Chitrakoot, four people, including two children, were killed and 12 injured after a tractor-trolley overturned near Ramnagar in Mau tehsil around 2.30 am.
District Magistrate Pulkit Garg said the victims were returning after visiting religious places when the vehicle’s coupling mechanism came off, causing the trolley to overturn. Around 25 people, including members of a family from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, were travelling in it. Seven injured people were seriously hurt and referred to Prayagraj for further treatment.
In another major accident, three people were killed and 41 injured after a bus travelling from Rajasthan’s Beawar to Bihar’s Chhapra overturned into a ditch near Zero Point on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway between 6 am and 6.30 am. Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said the injured were being treated at hospitals and their families were being informed. Pathak later called for coordinated measures to enforce speed limits on expressways, conduct regular driver counselling and make pre-entry health checks mandatory. In Shahjahanpur, a private bus conductor and helper were crushed to death by an unidentified truck on the Ganga Expressway. Vipin Yadav (50) and Kaushal (35) had stepped out to inspect a windowpane when the truck ran them over.
In another accident in Lucknow, a 22-year-old man was killed and a 17-year-old injured after their motorcycle was hit by an unidentified vehicle near Dev Hospital. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy was killed and his friend seriously injured when a speeding state transport bus hit their motorcycle near Sanjak village in Muzaffarnagar.
Separately, four people were killed and two injured in two accidents in Kushinagar and Lucknow on Diwali evening. Two youths died after a motorcycle and pickup collision in Kushinagar, while two passengers were killed in an e-rickshaw-car collision in Lucknow’s Dubagga area. Authorities suspect poor visibility may have contributed to some early-morning crashes, though the cause is yet to be established.
