13 die in mishaps as haze hits visibility

CHANDIGARH/AGRA/NOIDA: At least 13 people were killed and 24 injured in about half a dozen accidents on Wednesday as dense haze engulfed northern plains of India.

A blanket of toxic haze has engulfed entire northern India on account of stubble burning in agriculture fields of Punjab, Haryana and parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

The worst pile-up happened in Punjab’s Bathinda town, where nine were killed when a truck rammed into passengers of a private bus that had earlier collided with a state transport bus, which had earlier hit two jeeps. The passengers, many of them school going children, were waiting for the next bus to come when they were crushed by the truck.

As the injured were being taken to a local hospital, another pile-up happened on opposite carriageway in which a woman was crushed when a private bus hit several other vehicles.

Police said both the accidents in which over a dozen people were injured happened between 8am and 8.30am when the haze induced visibility was very low.

“While taking the injured to Adesh hospital we witnessed the driver of this truck driving very fast. We asked him to go slow down but he didn’t listen,” said Sukhpal Singh a worker with a local voluntary organisation.

A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against the truck driver, who reportedly fled after the accident.

Punjab government announced a compensation ₹ 1lakh each to the kin of deceased and ₹50, 000 each to the injured.

More than 500 kms away, two persons were killed and a dozen injured in separate accidents in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Six people were injured in another mishap on Yamuna Expressway in Greater Naoida’s Dankaur when 13 vehicles were caught in a pile-up.

In Mathura, a person died and several people were injured in an accident involving about half a dozen cars.