5 dead as car rams truck on Yamuna Expressway
HT Correspondent
NOIDA: Five people were killed and two injured after their SUV rammed a moving truck on the Yamuna Expressway early Thursday morning, police said, adding that prima facie, it appears that the driver of the SUV might have dozed off leading to the vehicle ramming the truck in front of it.
Police identified the deceased as Chandrakant Burade (68), Swarna Burade (59), Malan Kumbhar (68), and Ranjana Pawar (60) -- all four were residents of Pune City in Maharashtra -- and Nuwanjan Mujawar (53), who hailed from Karnataka. The injured were identified as Narayan Kolekar (40) from Satara in Maharashtra and Sunita Gaste (35) from Karnataka.
Police said all of them were pilgrims on a tour of temples and holy sites and they had left from Vrindavan around 4am Thursday for Kedarnath in Uttarakhand when the accident took place.
“The incident took place around 5am on the Yamuna Expressway under the Jewar police station jurisdiction. There were seven people travelling in the SUV, a Bolero, and they were headed towards Noida from Agra.near the 40km milestone, near the Jewar toll plaza, the
Bolero rammed a moving truck from behind,” said Minakshi Katyayan, deputy commissioner of police (Greater Noida).
The dumper truck was impounded by the police but its driver had fled by then, the DCP said.
“The collision was a hard one and it took time for rescuers to extricate the passengers from the mangled vehicle. All seven were rushed to a private hospital where five succumbed to injuries,” Katyayan said.
“The Bolero in which the seven were travelling was accompanied by a bus in which 40-42 other pilgrims of the group were travelling. They had left early morning from Vrindavan and were headed to Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand,” the DCP said.
The driver of the truck is on the run, said police. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath directed Gautam Budh Nagar district officials to ensure proper treatment to those injured.